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ON   THE 


SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 


ON  THE 


SENSE    OF    TOUCH, 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  PHILOSOPHY 


OPPOSED    TO 


MATERIALISM    AND    ATHEISM 


BEING    AN 


INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE, 

DELIVERED    ON    THE    6TH    DAY    OF    NOVEMBER,  1837,  ON    THE 
OPENING  OF  THE  NEW  COLLEGE,  IN  CROSBY  STREET. 


BY 

J.  AUGUSTINE  SMITH,  M.  D. 

MEMBER  OF  THE   ROYAL  COLLEGE  OF  SURGEONS  OF  LONDON,  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  COL- 
LEGE OF  PHYSICIANS    AND   SURGEONS  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  THE  STATE  OF 
NEW  YORK,  AND  PROFESSOR  OF  PHYSIOLOGY  IN  THAT  INSTITUTION. 


NEW  YORK  : 

W.  E.  DEAN  PRINTER  &  PUBLISHER,  2  ANN  STREET. 

1837. 


-    fJW 


Entered, 

According  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1837,  by 

W.    E.    DEAN, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Southern  District  of 

New  Yore, 


TO  THE 


REV.   REUEL   KEITH,    D.  D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY,  &C,  IN  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL 
SEMINARY  IN  THE  DIOCESS  OF  VIRGINIA. 


Dear  Sir  : 

You  have  on  more  than  one  occasion  expressed  a  wish 
to  see  the  argument  which  I  informed  you  I  had  devised 
against  the  Atheists.  It  is  accordingly  now  submitted  to  your 
consideration.  But  what  you  and  others,  who  appreciate  ab- 
stract discussions  as  they  merit,  will  think  of  my  logic,  I  can 
not  anticipate.  To  me  it  appears  novel,  and  I  should  add 
conclusive,  had  not  such  eminent  philosophers  failed  in 
the  attempt,  which  I  have  essayed.  Yet  whether  demon- 
strative or  not,  an  original  train  of  thought  tending  to  estab- 
lish the  existence  of  the  Deity,  is  not  without  its  value. 
The  reasoning  therefore  which  I  have  employed  in  support 
of  the  sublimest  of  all  truths,  if  less  forcible  than  parental 
fondness  would  represent  it,  may,  nevertheless,  be  esteem- 
ed a  contribution  on  my  part  from  Science  to  Religion. 

As  a  prelude  to  the  remarks  in  opposition  to  the  Atheists, 
and  for  reasons  stated  in  the  Lecture,  I  have  thought  it 
well  to  pass  Materialism  through  the  metaphysical  cruci- 
ble. Of  my  analysis  and  its  results  I  need  not  speak,  since 
you  are  an  equally  competent  and  more  impartial  judge, 
than  yours, 

With  continued 

Friendship  and  esteem, 

J.  AUG.  SMITH. 

New  Yore:, 
7th  Nov.  1837. 


ON    THE 


SENSE    OF    TOUCH 


Gentlemen, 

I  am  happy  to  announce  that  through  the  fostering  care 
of  the  Regents,  and  the  judicious  kindness  of  the  Trustees, 
our  College  opens  for  the  ensuing  Session  under  the  most 
favourable  auspices.  We  have  exchanged  our  former  con- 
fined and  inconvenient  apartments,  for  the  spacious  and 
most  commodious  building  in  which  we  are  now  convened. 
But  what  is  of  far  greater  consequence,  we  have  no  small 
accession  of  new  talent,*  and  there  has  consequently  been 
infused  into  the  Faculty  an  augmented  power  of  imparting 
knowledge.  Under  these  fortunate  circumstances  it  be- 
comes my  pleasing  duty  as  presiding  officer  of  the  institu- 
tion, to  deliver  an  address  in  some  measure  commensurate 
with  the  importance  of  the  occasion.  Accordingly  I  have 
selected  topics  of  the  deepest  interest  to  responsible  be- 
ings, which  a  physiologist,  who  is  also  a  layman,  is  permit- 
ted to  treat.  For  although  the  Sense  of  Touch  is  my  theme, 
yet  in  discussing  it,  I  hope  to  prove  that  man  differs  some- 


*  Dr.  Alban  G.  Smith  and  Dr.  Auiariah  Brigham  have  been  appointed 
to  chairs  in  the  College  during  the  vacation  ;  the  former  to  teach  Sur- 
gery, the  latter  Special  Anatomy. 


SENSE  OF  TOUCH. 


what  from  the  dust  on  which  he  treads,  and  that  the  vast 
fabric  of  the  universe  is  the  work  of  Omnipotence.  But 
to  establish  these  truths  the  ordinary  limits*  of  a  lecture  will 
not  suffice.  A  tax  therefore  will  have  to  be  imposed,  though 
most  unwillingly,  upon  your  patience  ;  yet  those  whose 
good  nature  may  induce  them  to  bear  with  some  excess, 
will,  I  flatter  myself,  be  rewarded  by  an  occasional  sugges- 
tion, both  novel  and  gratifying.  Where  my  ideas  are  more 
trite,  the  dignity  of  my  subject  must  stand  for  their 
apology. 

Of  the  five  inlets  to  knowledge  not  one  is  more  widely 
disseminated  than  the  Sense  of  Touch.  Belonging  indeed, 
to  the  minutest  microscopic  insects  as  it  is  seen  to  do,  (a)  it 
is  probably  co-extensive  with  animal  life,  (b)  But  as  the 
tactile  power  is  most  exquisite  in  the  fifth,  and  as  that  is 
also  the  gustatory  nerve,  to  feel  and  to  taste,  are,  perhaps 
in  all  creatures,  associate  faculties.  In  man  a  capacity  to 
perceive  the  tangible  qualities  of  matter  is  diffused  in  some 
degree  over  his  whole  body,  but  it  resides  more  particularly 
in  the  tip  of  the  tongue,  and  the  ends  of  the  fingers,  and  toes. 
In  the  first  and  the  last  it  is  seldom  called  into  use,  except 
in  cases  of  deformity  or  disease.  Where  the  hands  have 
been  wanting,  the  toes  have  to  a  certain  extent  become 
substitutes  for  the  fingers  ;  and  two  casesf  have  been  re- 
ported to  me,  on  authority  not  to  be  doubted,  in  which  blind 
persons  were  enabled  to  thread  needles  by  the  aid  of  their 
tongues.J     But  it  is  the  papillae  at  the  ends  of  the  fingers 


*  Hence,  the  number  and  the  length  of  the  notes,  into  which  every  thing 
has  been  thrown  that  could  be  dispensed  with  in  the  text. 

t  This  feat,  however,  requires  I  suspect  many  efforts  before  it  can  be 
accomplished  ;  at  any  rate  I  have  attempted  it  in  vain. 

t  One  of  these  is  the  celebrated  Julia  Brace  of  Hartford,  who  is  deaf, 
dumb,  and  blind ;  the  other  was  a  member  of  one  of  the  first  families  in 
our  country. 

(<z),  (Z»),  See  notes  at  the  end. 


SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 


which  constitute  for  ordinary  purposes  the  organ  of  feel- 
ing ;  and  it  is  to  this  power  in  these  members,  combined 
with  their  number,*  length,  and  flexibility,  that  man  is  in  a 
great  degree  indebted  for  his  superiority  over  animals  so 
far  exceeding  him  in  size  and  strength.  He  does  not  ride 
the  horse  however,  as  Helvetius  thought,  because  he  has 
fingers  and  toes,  while  the  extremities  of  that  animal  termi- 
nate in  hoofs — that  result  being  due  to  mental  power,  not 
physical  organization.  The  inhabitants  of  Caffre-land  and 
the  savages  of  New  Holland  do  not  differ  in  anatomical 
structure,  as  far  as  their  upper  limbs  are  concerned,  from  us. 
Whence  then  their  inferiority?  The  difference  lies  undoubt- 
edly in  the  intellectual  capacities  of  these  several  races, 
and  not  in  their  fingers.  That  the  hand  is  admirably 
adapted  to  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  designed,  cannot  be 
disputed  ;  but  that  it  furnishes  us  with  all  the  knowledge 
which  those  philosophers,  termed  Materialists,  ascribe  to  it, 
I  can  by  no  means  admit.  And  this  point  I  propose  to  ex- 
amine at  large.  First,  on  account  of  its  intrinsic  importance, 
and  secondly,  because  we  derive  a  large  portion  of  our 
medical  literature  from  France,  and  much  of  it,  I  allude 
particularly  to  the  school,  first  of  Cabanis,  and  then  of 
Broussais,(c)  is  deeply  tinctured  with  Materialism.  Nearly 
allied  to  Atheism,  for  I  imagine  the  disciples  of  Priestlyt 
are  but  few,  it  requires  to  be  more  thoroughly  exposed, 
because,  being  less  shocking  to  our  feelings,  its  diffusion  is 


*  It  is  mentioned  by  Meckel  as  a  curious  fact  in  comparative  anatomy, 
that  there  is  no  creature  in  existence,  which  has  an  extremity  terminat- 
ing in  more  than  five  sub-divisions.  This  organization  undoubtedly 
gives  us  incalculable  advantages,  and  Swift  was  sadly  puzzled  to  put  his 
favourite  huyhuhums  upon  a  par  with  us  in  this  particular.  "  They  (the 
huyhuhums)  use  the  hollow  part,  between  the  pastern  and  the  hoof  of 
their  feet,  as  we  do  our  hands.  I  have  seen  a  white  mare  of  our  family 
thread  a  needle  with  that  joint"— no  easy  task  one  would  think.— Vide 
Gulliver's  Travels. 

t  Priestly  was  a  Materialist,  but  no  Atheist. 

(c)  See  note  at  the  end. 

2 


10  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

wider,  and  consequent  mischief  greater.  But  to  perfect 
my  discourse  both  errors  must  be  embraced— I  hope  re- 
futed. 

In  the  attempt,  however,  to  expose  and  destroy  these 
unfortunate  opinions,  I  shall  have  to  employ  an  arm  against 
which  my  opponents  will  protest  most  loudly.  "  None  of 
your  metaphysics  for  us,"  they  will  exclaim,  "  we  are  con- 
tent with  common  sense."  They  may  be  so,  but  then  they 
must  be  also  content  with  common  ignorance.  For  common 
sense  can  no  more  develop  the  nature  of  the  human  mind, 
than  common  arithmetic  can  calculate  the  motions  of  the 
planets.  I  must  therefore  insist  upon  using  the  only  mode 
of  reasoning,  which,  in  such  discussions,  will  conduct  us  to 
the  truth.  And  to  this  there  is  less  objection,  because  I  shall 
have  occasion  for  no  lengthened  series  of  syllogisms  where 
my  remarks  are  affirmative.  When  this  is  their  character, 
they  will  consist  of  little  more  than  an  accurate  detail  of 
all  the  facts  involved  in  the  inquiry.  As  far  as  the  Materi- 
alists are  concerned,  what  logic  I  shall  require,  will  be 
chiefly  expended  in  the  examination,  I  hope  it  will  be 
found  the  demolition,  of  their  solitary  argument.  I  say  their 
solitary  argument,  because  their  views  so  far  as  I  can  un- 
derstand them,  may  be  summed  up  concisely,  but  with  per- 
fect f  airness  as  follows  :  "  We  feel  matter,  therefore  we 
know  it  exists.  Produce  now,  that  is,  make  manifest  to 
our  senses  what  you  call  mind,  or  admit  there  is  no  distinct 
existence  to  which  that  name  can  be  applied.  But  such 
evidence  you  have  not,  and  must  consequently  acknowledge 
that  matter  under  one  modification  is  cognizant  of  matter 
in  another  state,  or  more  specifically  that  matter  in  the  shape 
of  a  man,  recognises  matter  in  the  form  of  a  stone." 

The  reply  demanded  by  this  reasoning  being  confessedly 
impracticable,  it  is  put  forth  as  unanswerable.  To  me,  how- 
ever, the  insuperableness  of  this  curious  specimen  of  the 


MATERIALISM.  1 1 

dialectic  art  is  by  no  means  its  most  remarkable  feature. 
That  consists  in  the  strange  attempt  to  deduce  the  char- 
acter of  the  power  acting  from  the  certainty  of  the  sub- 
stance acted  upon.  Accordingly,  the  question  whether  ice 
are  simple  or  compound,  is  held  to  be  triumphantly  deter- 
mined by  the  averment,  that  extraneous  bodies  which  af- 
fect our  faculties  have  a  real  existence  ! 

But  secondly,  as  an  inquiiy  into  our  constitution  must  be 
conducted  by  us,  it  follows  that  in  carrying  on  such  an  in- 
vestigation, we  are  at  one  and  the  same  time  agent,  instru- 
ment, and  subject.  Now  under  such  unusual  and  per- 
plexing circumstances,  we  need,  and  have  a  right  to  require 
every  aid,  and  particularly  every  preparatory  elucidation, 
which  can  by  any  possibility  be  afforded  us.  Yet  our 
friends  the  Materialists  seem  to  think  nothing  of  the  kind 
necessary.  At  any  rate  they  have  preferred  a  plan  far 
more  summary,  and  to  themselves  far  more  convenient. 
For,  eschewing  all  troublesome  preliminaries,  they  plunge 
at  once  in  medias  res  ;  take  man  in  the  gross  with  all  his 
qualities,  mental  and  corporeal,  with  all  his  vast  capacities 
and  boundless  aspirations,  argue  from  him  to  a  stone,  and 
back  from  the  stone  to  him,  and  thus,  with  matchless  brev- 
ity and  beauty,  identify  the  mysterious  and  marvellous 
Being,  who  feels  and  knows,  with  the  insensate  and  worth- 
less rock,  which  by  the  said  Being  is  felt  and  known  ! 

I  believe,  as  friend  Sancho  would  say,  this  argument  will 
not  hold  water.  Yet  it  must  be  subjected  to  further  analysis, 
because  though  ill  constructed  and  inconclusive,  it  may 
nevertheless,  for  any  thing  that  has  hitherto  appeared,  be 
sound  in  its  main  positions.  These,  therefore,  I  shall  pro- 
ceed to  attack,  fully  pursuaded  that  the  premises  of  our  ad- 
versaries, as  understood  and  stated  by  them,  are  as  un- 
founded in  fact,  as  their  conclusion  is  unwarranted  by  logic. 


12  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

But  before  I  proceed  it  may  be  as  well  to  state  in  plain 
terms,  the  problem  to  be  solved.  It  is  this:  Does  more  than 
a  single,  solitary  element  enter  into  the  composition  of 
man  ? 

In  prosecuting  the  solution  of  this  problem,  I  must 
first  dispose  of  the  two  affirmations  of  our  antagonists — 
they  "  feel  matter  and  know  it  exists."  I  deny  them  both, 
and  take  upon  myself  to  prove,  that  no  Materialist  ever  did 
feel  matter,  or  ever  can  know  that  it  exists. 

Having  thus  thrown  down  the  gauntlet  in  the  broadest 
and  strongest  terms,  nothing  remains  but  to  arrange  the 
conditions  of  the  battle,  that  is,  to  premise  the  requisite 
definitions.  Now  it  is  upon  the  words  "  feel"  and  "  know" 
that  the  contest  is  to  turn  ;  they  must  therefore  be  explain- 
ed.    We  shall  begin  with  the  first. 

The  expression  to  "  feel"  is  ordinarily  applied  to.  sensa- 
tions which  have  not  a  great  deal  in  common.  Thus  we 
say,  we  "  feel"  happy,  cold,  &c.  In  the  controversy  in 
which  we  are  engaged,  it  refers  to  ideas  derived  strictly 
from  the  Sense  of  Touch. 


In  the  foregoing  part  of  the  Lecture,  when  describing 
this  sense,  I  mentioned  that  it  is  in  some  measure  diffused 
over  the  whole  body.  Hence,  as  may  be  well  imagined,  im- 
pressions from  this  source  career  through  the  mind  in  an 
endless  current.  Myriads  of  them,  of  course,  are  never 
attended  to,  while  those  which  become  objects  of  con- 
sciousness immediately  undergo  a  species  of  transforma- 
tion. The  primary  sensation  is  converted  into  a  secondary 
perception,  and  this  being  done,  the  mind  instantly  and 
further  proceeds  to  draw  an  inference.  But  these  two  last 
mental  operations  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  first. 


MATERIALISM.  13 

For  that  is  the  cause,  while  they  are  its  effects,  and  one  is 
a  mere  state  of  the  mind,  while  the  others  refer  to  some- 
thing external  to  the  mind,  and  of  a  widely  different  char- 
acter. When,  therefore,  the  Materialists  say  they  "  feel" 
matter,  they  couple  a  fact,  their  being  conscious*  of  a  sen- 
sation, which  is  indisputably  true,  with  ideas  which  whether 
true  or  false,  must  be  investigated  and  proved  before  they 
can  be  admitted.  An  uninformed  hearer,  however  duped 
by  the  language  employed,  never  dreams  that  any  discrimi- 
nation can  be  required  in  so  plain  a  case,  and  without  more 
ado,  acknowledges  the  whole  account  to  be  not  only  true, 
but  self-evident. 

Thus  through  the  nearly  universal  carelessness  and  igno- 
rance of  mankind,  in  relation  to  such  subjects,  the  Material- 
ists duped  themselves,  deceive  a  few,  and  puzzle  many,  by 
the  mere  phraseology  in  which  their  argument  is  couched. 
Of  this  advantage  an  accurate  detail  of  the  facts  will  de- 
prive them,  and  at  the  same  time  relieve  you  from  a  con- 
tinued contemplation  of  abstractions.  These  facts,  the 
proof  of  which  will  be  in  your  own  minds,  are  however 
so  important,  that  every  one  will  have  to  be  commented 
upon  as  it  is  stated.     We  must  take  them  in  their  order. 

When  I  hold  these  spectacles  in  my  hand,  I  experience 
a  sensation — the  sensation  of  resistance.  If  I  exclude  my 
other  senses,  and  their  introduction  while  it  embarrassed 
the  argument,  would  not  at  all  aid  my  opponents,  the  Sense 
of  Touch  will  obviously  impart  no  further  information,  bear- 
ing upon  our  inquiry.     It  is  then  the  sensation  resistance, 

*  Consciousness  it  must  be  recollected  is  always  restricted  in  such  dis- 
cussions as  we  are  engaged  in,  to  our  being  aware  of  the  existence  of  a 
sensation,  and  excludes  every  subsequent  arTection  of  the  mind.  Thus 
defined,  it  obviously  cannot  be  otherwise  than  true,  while  perceptions  and 
inferences  which  are  frequently  confounded  with  it  may  be  as  we  shall 
hereafter  see,  are,  occasionally,  false. 


14  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

only  of  which  I  am  conscious,  and  beyond  this  every  propo- 
sition must  be  distinctly  stated  and  fully  proved.  But 
this  is  absolutely  impossible  without  the  aid  of  metaphy- 
sical science.  What  then  will  the  Materialists  do  ?  Will 
they  consent  to  invoke  the  assistance  of  what  they  profess 
to  scorn,  and  certainly  have  good  reason  to  detest — the  phy- 
losophy  of  mind ;  or,  will  they  content  themselves  with  their 
solitary  truth  ?  If  so,  it  is  well;  but  then  their  reasoning  must 
be  made  to  correspond  with  their  single  fact — that  is,  re- 
sistance which  they  do  feel  must  be  substituted  for  matter 
which  they  do  not  feel.  Thus  reformed,  their  argument 
would  stand  as  follows  :  "  we  feel"  resistance,  "  therefore 
we  know  it  exists  ;  produce  now,  that  is,  make  evident  to 
our  senses  what  you  call  mind,  or  admit  there  is  no  distinct 
existence  to  which  that  name  can  be  applied.  But  such 
evidence  you  have  not,  and  must  consequently  acknowledge 
that"  resistance  "  under  one  modification  is  cognizant  of" 
resistance  "  in  a  different  state,  or  more  specifically  that" 
resistance  "  in  the  shape  of  a  man  recognises"  resistance 
"  in  the  form  of  a  stone" — an  idea  sufficiently  surprising  cer- 
tainly, whatever  may  be  thought  of  its  truth.  It  has  how- 
ever the  merit  of  simplification  pushed  to  its  utmost  limits, 
and  it  is  without  doubt  this  circumstance  which  endears  it 
to  the  Materialists.  (<i)  But  our  philosophy  requires  a  broad- 
er foundation  of  facts,  and  for  these  we  shall  accordingly 
proceed  to  seek. 

In  carrying  on  our  proposed  researches,  a  source  of 
error  and  confusion  will  have  to  be  revealed  and  removed, 
which  is  rather  recondite,  and  to  which  slight  allusion  has 
hitherto  been  made.  It  is,  nevertheless,  the  spring-head  of 
all  the  difficulties  attending  the  inquiry  in  which  we  are  en- 
gaged, and  furnishes  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Materialists,  what- 

(d)  See  note  at  the  end. 


MATERIALISM.  15 

soever  of  plausibility  it  possesses.  Yet  an  exposure  of  their 
unfortunate  creed  to  be  successful,  requires  that  distinctions 
be  seen  and  borne  in  mind,  which  are  by  no  means  patent. 
To  the  bulk  of  mankind  accordingly  they  never  occur.  But 
once  familiar  to  the  mind,  the  toils  in  which  the  Material- 
ists are  themselves  entangled,  and  which  they  spread  to 
catch  others,  are  as  cobwebs  to  the  lion — he  doth  not  feel, 
he  doth  not  know  them. 


What  then  are  the  distinctions,  on  which  I  lay  so  much 
stress  ?  They  consist  in  separating  a  cause  from  its  ef- 
ects  ;  in  distinguishing  between  a  state  of  the  mind  and  a 
quality  of  matter  ;  and  lastly  in  recollecting  that  a  premise 
is  not  conclusion.*  These  are  all  which  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  comprehend  ;  but  for  the  full  understanding  of 
the  subject,  several  collateral  particulars  must  be  included. 
The  whole  will  now  be  laid  before  you  ;  and  for  that  pur- 
pose, recourse  must  once  more  be  had  to  the  spectacles. 

When  I  hold  these  in  my  hand,  I  am  conscious  as  already 
stated,  of  "  the  sensation  resistance."  But  no  sooner  is  this 
experienced  than  our  mental  machinery,  being  set  into 
operation,  and  moving  according  to  its  appointed  laws,  in- 
stantly excites  in  our  minds,  other  and  far  different  notions. 


*  Did  these  phenomena  form  a  part  of  physical  science,  no  observer 
would  be  so  gross  as  to  confound  them.  But  appertaining  to  the  diviner 
part  merely  of  our  nature,  they  are  not  thought  worthy  of  attention,  ex- 
cept by  here  and  there  an  inquirer,  at  whose  simplicity  in  attending  to 
such  trifles,  his  fellow  mortals  are  wont  to  smile.  The  result  is,  that  in 
what  relates  to  the  mind,  not  only  can  no  theory,  as  it  is  called,  be  so 
monstrous  as  to  fail  in  finding  supporters  ;  but  no  random  assertion  can 
be  too  glaringly  absurd  and  revolting  to  have  its  believers.  Science, 
however,  even  metaphysical  science  is  descending  slowly,  and  diffusing; 
itself  gradually  through  the  mass.  All  hail !  say  I,  to  the  extension  of 
truth  ;  and  if  mankind  will  only  adopt  and  act  upon  right  principles,  they 
may  rail  at  them  in  words  to  their  hearts'  content. 


16  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

These  of  course  stand  to  the  first  in  the  relation  of  effects 
to  a  cause.  Of  these  effects  the  primary  one  is  the  percep- 
tion of  the  quality  resistance.  Now  although  as  I  have 
said  the  sensation  resistance,  is  the  immediate  cause  of  our 
becoming  acquainted  with  the  quality  resistance,  and 
although  what  is  if  possible  a  wider  difference,  one  is  obvi- 
ously a  state  of  the  mind,  while  the  other  appertains,  as  we 
shall  hereafter  see  to  matter,  yet  is  the  same  appellation* 
applied  to  both,  they  are  virtually  blended  into  one,  nor  is 
any  distinction  ever  taken  between  them,  by  superficial 
inquirers. 

All  parties  then  being  equally  unobservant  of  what 
passes  in  their  minds,  when  a  Materialist  says  he  feels 
matter,  his  auditor  acquiesces,  both  understanding  the  word 
first  in  one  sense  and  then  in  the  other.  And  not  satisfied 
with  this  original  blunder,  they  immediately  fall  into  seve- 
ral others.  For  secondly,  they  confound  the  quality  resist- 
ance with  the  substance  to  which  it  belongs.  Thirdly, 
they  disregard  that  quality  altogether  ;  and  thus  matter  is 
supposed  to  be  an  object  of  direct  perception.  Fourthly, 
this  perception  is  imagined  to  be  the  result  of  actual  con- 
tact between  the  body  felt,  and  the  percipient  power. 

Here  then  are  four  mistakes  in  three  words,  and  to  these 
must  be  added,  what  was  before  mentioned, the  transferring 
the  certainty,  which  cannot  but  attend  a  sensation  of  which 
we  are  conscious,  to  the  supposed  material  cause  of  that 
sensation,  although  the  reality  of  such  cause,  so  far  from 

*  Precisely  the  same  inaccuracy  of  language  occurs  with  regard  to  the 
other  senses,  except  that  of  hearing.  The  sweetness  of  sugar,  the  green- 
ness of  grass,  the  smell  of  the  rose,  are  all  instances  in  which  the  same 
words  are  used  indifferently  for  causes  or  effects,  for  sensations  in  the 
mind,  or  for  qualities  in  things.  But  no  one  confounds  the  tune  with  the 
fiddle. 


MATERIALISM.  17 

having  been  proved,  has  hitherto  been  scarcely  advert- 
ed to. 

The  result  of  all  this  inaccuracy  of  observation,  confusion 
of  thought,  and  ambiguity  of  language,  is,  that  the  ill-taught 
asserter  of  the  independent  existence  of  mind,  having  incau- 
tiously conceded  the  postulate,  that  matter  is  felt,  and  being 
thereupon  required,  unreasonably  enough,  to  produce  evi- 
dence not  only  equal  in  degree,  but  similar  in  kind,  finds  him- 
self puzzled,  if  not  conquered.  Whereas  had  he  scrutinized 
with  care  and  intelligence,  the  operations  of  his  own  mind  ; 
had  he  familiarized  himself  with  the  distinctions,  on  which  I 
lay  so  much  stress,  instead  of  yielding  the  required  conces- 
sion, he  would  at  once  say,  "  No  !  how  can  you  possibly  ex- 
pect me  to  assent  to  your  assertion,  that  you  feel  matter  1 
In  the  first  place  I  have  already  denied,  and  do  again  express 
my  complete  disbelief  of  the  fact.  But  secondly,  you  ask 
me  to  grant  the  very  point,  upon  which  the  whole  force  of 
your  argument  depends.  If  I  admit  you  feel  matter,  I  admit 
its  absolute  existence.  Now  it  is  upon  the  certainty  with 
which  you  can  establish  such  existence,  that  your  entire 
cause  rests.  In  appearance  and  manner  you  are  confident 
enough  of  your  ability  to  prove  all  you  wish,  while  in  re- 
ality you  beg  the  question  in  the  form  of  a  loose,  ambiguous, 
nay,  garbled  postulate.  I  add  the  last  epithet,  because,  as 
I  shall  hereafter  show,  when  in  your  phraseology  you  feel 
matter,  you  experience  at  the  same  time  other  impressions 
with  at  least  equal  certainty,  and  these  you  leave  out  of 
view.  But  to  such  an  omission  I  cannot  consent ;  you  must 
include  all  your  feelings  connected  with  the  point  at  issue, 
or  you  must  make  no  appeal  to  them  ;  if  you  attempt  the 
former  you  commit  felo  de  se,  as  will  in  due  season  be  ren- 
dered manifest ;  if  you  adopt  the  latter,  where  is  your  ar- 
gument ?  Would  you  be  advised  by  an  opponent  ?  Change 
your  tactics  ;  for  in  your  present  mode  of  conducting  the 
discussion,  instead  of  proving  what  you  wish,  you  unwit- 


18  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

tingly  concede  its  reverse.  Thus  you  say  you  feel  matter  ; 
the  sensation  we  admit ;  but  sensation  implies  conscious- 
ness, and  consciousness,  by  definition,  is  a  state  of  the  mind. 
Here  then  we  have  mind,  by  your  own  acknowledgement ; 
yet  from  this  very  acknowledgement,  and  through  the  aid 
of  another  of  the  mental  powers,  you  are  endeavouring  to 
sustain  your  doctrine  ;  in  other  words,  you  are  engaged  in 
the  hopeless  task  of  disproving  the  existence  of  the  mind, 
through  the  agency  of  its  own  functions  ! 

"  But  you  will  perhaps  object  to  our  definition.  Do  so  if 
you  think  proper,  yet  take  heed  what  you  are  about ;  for 
whether  there  be  such  a  thing  as  matter  or  not,  the  fact 
has  not  hitherto  been  made  to  appear.  Yet  until  it  does, 
you  are  exposed  to  a  maxim,  as  true  in  philosophy  as  it  is 
in  law,  de  non  apparentibus  et  non  existentibus  eadem  est 
ratio.  If  therefore  you  discard  our  mind  before  you  esta- 
blish your  matter,  you  will  attain  the  sublime  conclusion 
imputed  to  the  Lordly  poet,  that" — 

11  Nought  is  every  thing,  and  every  thing  is  nought." 

Such  a  reply  to  the  assumption  of  the  Materialists  that 
they  "  feel  matter,"  defies,  I  think,  all  rejoinder.  You  are  not 
to  suppose  however,  that  because  I  repudiate  the  logic  of  the 
Materialists,  I  therefore  deny  their  conclusion — the  reality 
of  matter.  That  I  acknowledge,*  but  not  in  their  way,  nor 
for  their  reasons,  and  as  you  are  at  length  prepared  to 
understand  the  premises  from  which  this  conclusion  really 
flows,  and  the  degree  of  certainty  which  in  truth  attaches 
to  it,  I  will  now  proceed  to  lay  the  whole  before  you  ;  that 
is  to  say,  I  will  now  explain  how  the  idea  of  matter  ob- 

*  This  acknowledgment,  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  remark,  must  not 
be  pleaded  in  argument,  unconnected  with  the  reasons  on  which  it  is 
founded.  Thus  united,  it  is  at  the  service  of  any  gentleman  who  may 
wish  to  take  advantage  of  it. 


MATERIALISM.  19 

tains  entrance  into  our  minds,  and  how  far  we  can  be  said 
to  know  that  it  exists. 

For  the  accomplishment  of  these  objects  I  shall  have  to 
define,  as  I  formerly  promised  to  do,  the  word  know.  In 
its  philosophical  sense,  and  as  used  by  the  Materialists,  it 
means  so  certain  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  some  proposi- 
tion, as  to  preclude  all  possibility  of  error.  According  to 
this  definition  I  apprehend,  to  know  that  matter  exists,  is  not 
within  the  scope  of  our  faculties.  There  is  in  my  judge- 
ment sufficient  evidence  to  warrant  a  belief  of  the  fact ;  and 
with  such  belief,  Materialists  as  well  as  others,  will  have  to 
content  themselves. 

To  prove  this  I  shall  have  to  recapitulate  some  of  the 
facts  which  have  already  been  established. 

It  has  been  shown  that  under  certain  circumstances  we 
experience  the  sensation  resistance.  It  has  been  further 
shown  the  instant  this  occurs,  a  conviction  arises  in  the 
mind,  that  there  exists  also  a  certain  quality  to  which  the 
same  appellation  is  applied.  Now  if  our  mental  operations 
were  to  cease  at  this  point,  it  is  quite  clear  we  should  have 
no  conception  of  the  substance  matter.  But  they  do  not 
cease,  and  will  with  or  without  our  volition,  carry  us  on- 
ward, and  force  upon  us  the  conclusion  that  resistance  be- 
ing a  quality,  cannot  subsist  per  se,  and  must  consequently 
depend  upon  something — or  substratum  as  it  has  been 
termed.  That  substratum*  is  of  course  what  we  have  been 
so  long  in  search  of,  namely,  matter.     This  interesting  dis- 

*  The  nature  of  this  substratum  is,  and  must  forever,  remain  unknown 
to  us.  But  this  it  is,  and  not  the  sensible  qualities  of  the  bread  and  wine, 
which  according  to  Hallam,  the  Romish  Church  insists  is  changed  by  the 
act  of  consecration.  This  view  of  the  case  completely  foils  the  vulgar 
argument  against  transubstantiation,  though  advanced  by  Tillotson,  and 
endorsed  by  Hume. 


20  SENSE    OF    TOUCH, 

covery  then  you  perceive,  so  far  from  being  the  result  of 
direct  and  immediate  perception,  is  brought  about  by  a 
very  curious  and  complex  process  of  the  mind.  By  a 
process  so  rapid  indeed  as  to  escape  ordinary  notice,  but 
neverthless  capable  of  being  entirely  unravelled  and  perfect- 
ly comprehended.  What  is  singular  the  sequence  of  actions 
which  leads  to  the  idea  of  matter,  is  originally  confined  to 
the  Sense  of  Touch.  Thus,  nothing  of  the  kind  takes  place 
independently  of  the  laws  of  association,  with  regard  to 
tasting,  smelling,  seeing,  as  I  am  persuaded,  and  above  all 
hearing.  And,  accordingly  an  illustration  from  the  last 
mentioned  faculty,  will  facilitate  your  understanding,  what 
I  have  been  endeavouring  to  unfold. 

When  we  hear  a  noise  in  the  street  of  a  particular  kind, 
we  say,  according  to  our  experience,  we  hear  a  coach  or  a 
fire-engine.  But  if  reminded  of  the  intermediate  agent 
"  noise,"  the  loosest  observers  are  at  once  aware,  that  they 
do  not  hear  the  coach  or  engine,  in  the  same  sense,  in  which 
they  would  say  they  felt  those  machines,  if  their  hands 
were  upon  them.  In  the  former  case  the  difference  be- 
tween perceptions  and  inferences  is  palpable  ;  for  all  will 
say  we  hear  a  sound,  and  suppose  so  and  so.  Now  only 
apply  the  same  discrimination  to  ideas  derived  from  the 
Sense  of  Touch  ;  keep  in  view  the  intermediate  agent  re- 
sistance,  in  the  one  case,  as  you  do  noise  in  the  other,  and 
the  mists  in  which  the  Materialists  envelop  their  doctrine, 
will  be  sufficiently  dispersed  for  the  truth  to  appear.  That 
it  should  beam  fully  upon  you,  a  further  analysis  is  required. 

I  have  already  stated  the  train  of  thought  which  gives 
rise  to  the  idea  of  matter.  But  with  that  idea,  when  it  refers 
to  an  external  body,  other  notions  are  inseparably  associated. 
These  are  frequently  disregarded,  I  admit,  but  they  are 
nevertheless  always  present,  and  may  be  recognized  by 
any  one  who  chooses  so  to  do. 


MATERIALISM,  21 

Thus,  when  I  press  my  hand  upon  this  table,  I  not  only 
become  cognizant  of  its  existence,  but  I  am  also  informed, 
that  it  is  both  external  and  alien  to  the  power  which  per- 
ceives it.  I  am  notified  further,  that  the  said  table  exists  now 
and  here  ;  in  other  words,  that  it  endures  through  a  certain 
portion  of  time,  and  fills  a  certain  portion  of  space.  Of  the 
two  last  ideas,  I  shall  have  something  to  say  hereafter ;  our 
immediate  business  is  with  the  two  first. 

Our  notion  of  outness  or  externality  is  not  necessarily 
accompanied  by  that  of  matter.  It  can  be  excited  by 
mere  pain ;  thus,  when  we  experience  a  simple  twinge  of 
the  tooth  ache  we  suffer,  and  are  aware  that  the  cause  of 
our  suffering  is  without  the  mind,  but  the  idea  of  matter 
does  not  occur  to  us.  With  regard  to  foreignness  our  idea  of 
it  is  very  faint,  unless  it  be  conjoined  with  that  of  matter  ; 
then  it  is  sufficiently  vivid,  in  so  much  that  whenever  the 
notion  of  matter  in  its  concrete  form,  enters  the  imagination 
the  conviction  is  just  as  strong,  that  such  matter  is  unlike  the 
mental  power  which  perceives  it,  as  it  is  that  there  is  any 
matter  at  all.  In  other  words,  when  I  press  this  table,  I  am 
to  the  full,  as  confident  that  it  is  at  some  distance  from  my 
mind,  and  different  from  it,  as  I  am  convinced  there  is  a 
table  ;  nor  can  I  by  any  possibility  insulate  the  principal 
idea  from  its  accessories.  If  the  first  then  be  taken,  the 
others  must  accompany  it.  If,  therefore,  matter  be  held  to 
exist  because  it  is  felt,  mind  must  be  held  to  exist  also,  and 
if  possible,  with  more  certainty,  the  evidence  in  its  favour 
being  as  three  prior  perceptions*  to  one  succeeding  infe- 
rence. 

You  are  now  satisfied  I  hope  of  the  truth  of  what  I  for- 
merly stated,  that  the  postulate  of  the  Materialists— they 
feel  matter,  is  a  loose,  ambiguous,  and  above  all,  a  garbled 


*  The  third  perception  is  the  quality  resistance ;  and  there  may  in  truth 
be  added  our  notions  of  time  and  space. 


22  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

one ;  and  that  if  the  whole  of  the  facts  be  taken  into  the  ac- 
count, and  arranged  in  their  proper  order,  two  things  (e)  never 
to  be  omitted  in  philosophical  investigation,  their  doctrine 
cannot  stand.  These  gentlemen  are  thus  placed  in  a  most 
awkward  predicament.  For  if  they  will  not  advance  be- 
yond the  primary  sensation  they  are  discomfitted,  since  sen- 
sation is  not  matter.  If  they  take  the  second  step,  so  as  to 
perceive  the  quality  resistance,  and  will  then  proceed  no 
further,  they  are  defeated,  because  quality  is  not  substance. 
And  lastly,  they  are  utterly  vanquished  if  they  attempt  the 
final  and  decisive  act — the  recognition  of  external  things, 
because  antecedently  to  such  recognition,  and  afterwards 
indissolubly  united  with  it  are  the  perceptions  of  outness 
and  foreignness,  time  and  space — perceptions  as  demon- 
strative at  the  least  of  mind,  as  is  resistance  of  matter. 

The  deniers  of  mind  have  then  I  fear  placed  themselves 
between  the  horns  of  the  dialemma,  by  the  one  or  the  other 
of  which  they  are  in  danger  of  being  gored.  For  they  can- 
not prove  that  matter  exists,  without  at  the  same  time  prov- 
ing, with  even  more  certainty,  if  possible,  that  mind  exists 
also  ;  and  the  laws  of  philosophy  will  not  permit  them  to 
assume  the  existence  of  matter,  and  from  that  assumption 
deduce  the  non-existence  mind,  for  this  would  be  not  only 
to  associate  ideas  destitute  of  connection,  but  it  would  op- 
pose aninference  whichis  negative,  to  facts  which  arepositive. 

I  repeat  then  that  our  friends  must  submit  to  be  impaled. 
For  they  are  obliged  either  to  accept  of  our  mind,  with  their 
matter,  or  relinquishing  mind,  matter  goes  along  with  it, 
and  so  far  as  it  is  practicable  for  them  to  ascertain  them- 
selves, the  earth,  and  the  universe,  keep  it  company  ! 

Having  thus  shown  you  the  origin  of  our  belief  in  the 

(e)  See  note  at  the  end. 


MATERIALISM.  23 

existence  of  matter,  I  must  next  explain,  the  manner  in 
which  we  refer  bodies  to  a  moment  of  time,  and  a  point  in 
space. 

With  regard  to  the  first  of  these  impressions,  there  is  no 
great  difficulty  ;  the  idea  of  duration  is  necessarily  associ- 
ated with  every  sensation,  either  during  its  continuance,  or 
as  having  been.  But  the  notion  of  position  is  quite  a  dif- 
ferent thing ;  for  you  are  not  to  suppose  it  is  simply  be- 
cause my  fingers  press  on  this  table,  that,  therefore,  and 
for  that  reason  only,  I  suppose  it  occupies  this  particular 
spot.  Not  at  all ;  had  there  not  been  a  special  law  made 
and  provided  for  such  occasions,  I  should  indeed  infer  there 
is  a  table,  but  its  precise  location  I  could  never  have  ima- 
gined. That  law  may  be  thus  stated  :  Impressions  made 
upon  any  point  of  a  sentient  nerve,  are  ascribed  to  a  par- 
ticular part,  and  usually,  perhaps  uniformly,  to  the  sentient 
extremity  of  such  nerve  ;  and  this,  although  the  impressing 
cause,  act,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  upon  the  middle  of  such 
nerve,  or  even  the  reverse,  its  extremity.*  Nay,  it  is  by  no 
means  uncommon,  through  what  is  called  sympathetic  ac- 
tion, or  more  definitely,  misplaced  sensation,  for  pain  to  be 
felt  in  one  part  of  the  system,  while  the  offending  matter  is 
lodged  in  a  different,  perhaps  a  remote  region  of  the  body, 
where  it  gives  no  intimation  whatever  of  its  existence. 

But  whether  a  true  reference  take  place  or  not,  it  is  evi- 
dent upon  the  slightest  reflexion,  that  an  act  of  reference 
is  indispensable.  Because  the  mind  never  can  be  conscious 
of  any  thing  external  to  itself,  and  but  for  the  provision  under 
discussion,  resistance  would  be  all  it  does  or  could  know — the 
information  imparted  by  the  eye,  as  in  a  person  born  blind, 


*  In  extirpating  the  eye,  the  optic  nerve  is  separated  between  the  retina 
and  the  brain,  yet  it  is  in  the  former  that  an  intense  flash  oflight  is  per» 
ceived  at  the  instant  of  the  division. 


24  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

not  bearing  upon  the  question.  How  then,  I  say,  comes  my 
mind,  although  at  the  distance  of  several  feet,  to  suppose  that 
the  cause  of  the  resistance  which  it  experiences;  that  is,  the 
table  occupies  this  particular  place  ?  The  notion  of  lo- 
cality is  a  perfectly  definite  one,  and  its  reception  by  the 
mind  must  be  accounted  for.  That  is  done  by  the  law 
above  announced,  and  as  far  as  I  know,  by  that  law 
only.* 

Having  now  explained  to  you  the  mode  in  which  the 
mind  acquires  the  idea  of  matter,  and  the  several  associa- 
tions inseparable  from  that  idea,  I  may  remark,  that  although 
our  notions  of  external  things  are  primarily  derived  from 
the  Sense  of  Touch  exclusively,  yet  those  notions  when 
once  obtained,  are  confirmed  by  the  combined  action  of 
the  other  senses,  particularly  the  eye.  Hence  we  say  as 
familiarly  that  we  see  a  thing,  as  that  we  feel  it.  And 
secondly,  our  convictions  respecting  external  bodies  are 
further  strengthened  by  another  of  the  laws  regulating 
our  mental  operations,  and  which  may  be  thus  express- 
ed. Whenever  an  impression  (/)  derived  from  our  or- 
gans of  sense,  acts  upon  the  mind  with  sufficient  forces 
the  conviction,  however  unfounded  in  fact,  is  complete 
as  to  the  reality  of  the  cause  of  that  impression.  Accord- 
ingly, a  belief  which  in  our  cooler  moments  we  know  to  be 
absurd,  may  for  a  time  at  least,  and  in  despite  of  our  efforts, 
overpower  us.  How  many  persons  are  there  for  instance, 
who,  sceptical  enough  as  to  supernatural  appearances  in 
the  broad  glare  of  day,  can  not  persuade  themselves  that 
all  they  may  behold  or  hear  is  earthly,  if  alone,  near  a  se- 
questered burying-ground,  in  a  gloomy  twilight,  illuminated 
by  an  occasional  flash  of  lightning  ?     Thus  situated,  reason 

*  The  same  law  explains  at  once  whence  we  derive  the  idea  of  space, 
it  being  involved  in  the  location  of  bodies.  When  on^ce  obtained,  its  in- 
definite expansion  is  sufficiently  obvious. 

(/)  See  note  at  the  end. 


MATERIALISM.  25 

might  be  summoned,  but  vainly  summoned  to  resist  the 
united  force  of  impressions  from  without,  and  associations 
from  within.  In  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  however,  not 
one  in  a  million  ever  for  a  moment  suspects  a  want  of  truth 
in  the  intelligence  communicated  by  his  senses.  With  that 
intelligence,  that  is,  with  the  modifications  of  matter,  or  with 
reminiscences  of  those  modifications,  we  are  occupied 
nearly  the  entire  whole  of  our  waking  hours.  Now  the 
tendency  of  all  these  combined  causes  being  to  force  upon 
us  the  conviction  that  there  is  really  and  truly  an  external 
world,  their  united  power,  in  the  usual  state  of  our  minds, 
is  absolutely  uncontrollable.  A  keen  metaphysician,  indeed, 
rapt  in  the  ardour  of  inquiry,  and  plunging  and  revelling 
in  the  depths  of  abstraction  may,  occasionally,  like  Berkely 
and  Hume,  and  eke  myself,  if  my  humble  name  may  be  con- 
joined with  theirs,  believe  for  the  moment,  that  all  is  mind. 
But  for  my  own  part,  whenever  my  conceptions  have  been 
thus  sublimated,  a  few  strides*  on  terra  jirma  have  sufficed 
to  dispel  the  illusion,  and  restore  the  sobriety  of  truth  in 
the  humbling  conviction,  that  soar  as  we  may,  for  the  instant 
we  are  nevertheless  "  of  the  Earth — Earthy." 

Is  it  possible  then,  you  may  be  inclined  to  ask,  that  a  be- 
lief so  universal  and  so  strong,  as  to  be  doubted  tempo- 
rarily only,  and  by  the  minutest  fraction  of  mankind,  is  it 
possible,  that  after  all,  such  a  belief  may  be  founded  in 
error?  Yes,  I  fear  so,  because  first,  the  thoroughness  of 
our  convictions  as  to  the  truth  of  some  opinion,  is  of  little 
avail  in  proving  the  correctness  of  that  opinion.  And 
secondly,  although  in  questions  of  moral  propriety,  the  de- 
termination of  the  good  and  the  wise  is  decisive,  yet  on 
many  occasions,  particularly  as  regards  physical  truth, 
what  the  mass  may  think  is  of  little,  on  others  of  no  im- 

*  Mr.  Hume's  corrective  is  said  to  have  been  a  game  at  whist,  and  a 
glass  of  port. 


26  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

portance  at  all.  Nay,  where  passion  and  prejudice  can 
operate,  the  united  voice  of  the  multitude  becomes  abso- 
lutely a  negative  quantity,  (g)  Of  the  former,  a  belief  in 
the  influence  of  the  moon  is  a  sufficient  evidence,  and  for  the 
latter  I  need  only  cite  the  well-known  exclamation,  and 
"  they,"  that  is,  "the  chief-priest,  the  rulers,  and  the  people, 
cried,  saying,  crucify  him — crucify  him."* 

But,  independently  of  these  general  considerations,  er- 
rors sometimes  occur  in  all  the  intelligence  imparted  by 
our  external  senses.  The  deceptiveness  of  four  of  them 
is,  indeed,  universally  admitted  ;  and  though  with  the  mul- 
titude "  seeing  is  believing,  but  feeling  is  knowing,"  yet  it 
is  demonstrable  that  the  Sense  of  Touch,  if  less  apt  than 
the  others  to  impose  upon  us,  is  nevertheless  liable  to  do 
so  from  what  may  be  termed  the  indirectness  of  our  per- 
ceptions.    What  that  means  I  will  now  explain. 

You  may  recollect  that  when  I  enumerated  the  errors 
involved  in  the  expression  "  we  feel  matter,"  I  mentioned 
as  one  of  them,  the  supposed  contact  of  external  bodies 
with  the  percipient  power.  Now  this  power  is  manifestly 
the  mind,  and  that  is  situated  unquestionably  within  the 
substance  of  the  brain,  consequently  more  or  less  remote 
from  the  impinging  body.  But  there  is  no  contact  between 
such  body  and  the  nerves  of  touch,  not  only  because  the 
insensible  cuticle  or  scarf-skin,  unless  temporarily  abraded, 
is  always  interposed,  but  because  in  nature  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  contact  either  between  bodies  themselves, 
or  between  particles  of  the  same  body.  As  the  latter  pro- 
position includes  the  former,  if  we  can  succeed  in  proving 
that,  our  point  will  be  gained. 

It  is  evident  that  if  the  particles  of  any  substance  be 

*  Luke  xxiii.  21,  (g)  See  note  at  the  end. 


MATERIALISM.  27 

already  in  contact,  they  cannot  be  brought  nearer  to  each 
other.  If,  therefore,  they  can  at  any  time  be  more  closely 
approximated,  it  is  clear  they  were  not  previously  in  con- 
tact. But  if  we  reduce  the  temperature  of  the  densest 
bodies,  they  will  contract  in  every  direction.  It  follows, 
their  particles  could  not  previously  have  been  in  contact 
in  any  one  direction. 

Again.  The  rays  of  light  cannot  pass  through  the  par- 
ticles of  matter.  In  permeating  bodies,  they  must  conse- 
quently take  their  course  between  the  particles  of  those 
bodies.  But  these  rays  are  transmitted  through  the  hard- 
est masses  in  every  possible  direction,  and  with  equal  fa- 
cility. It  follows  there  can  be  no  contact  in  those  masses 
by  points  or  otherwise,  to  interrupt  their  progress.  As, 
consequently,  there  is  no  contact  between  the  particles  of 
bodies,  a  fortiori  there  is  none  between  bodies  themselves, 
and  none  of  course  between  the  cuticle  of  my  fingers  and 
the  table.  And  be  not  amazed  at  this  conclusion.  For  it 
is  far  less  startling  than  the  astounding  fact,  proved  as  I 
think,  by  those  ingenious  gentlemen  the  astronomers,  that 
while  we  are  all  here  in  a  state  of  apparently  perfect  qui- 
etude and  repose,  we  are  actually  whirling  through  space, 
heels  over  head,  ten  times  as  fast  as  ever  yet  a  cannon- 
ball  "  winged  its  way  !"  (h) 

It  is  then  beyond  all  doubt  that  we  do  not  "  feel  matter" 
in  the  manner  assumed  by  the  Materialists  ;  there  being  as 
certainly  in  the  case  of  the  tactile  as  of  the  visual  faculty, 
a  medium  interposed  between  the  organ  and  external 
bodies. 

But  if  this  were  otherwise,  if  the  table  and  my  fingers 
were  in  contact,  it  must  be  recollected  that  our  organs  of 

(A)  See  note  at  the  end. 


28  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

sense  are  neither  the  mind,  nor  the  seat  of  the  mind,  that, 
as  was  before  stated,  being  at  some  distance,  and  doubtless 
somewhere  within  the  cranium.     At  that  point  wherever 
it  is,  all  impressions  from  without  must  be  finally  received. 
When,  therefore,  a  sentient  nerve  is  acted  upon  by  its  ap- 
propriate stimulus,  the  action  which  it  excites,  whatsoever 
may  be  the  nature  of  that  action,  has  to  be  transmitted  in 
some  mode  or  other,  through  such  nerve  to  the  habitat  of  the 
mental  faculties.  With  respect  to  the  olfactory,  optic,  audito- 
ry, and  gustatory  nerves,  the  route  to  be  travelled  is  compa- 
ratively short,  and  leads  directly  to  the  brain.    But  the  case 
is  very  different  with  the  Sense  of  Touch,  as  situated  in  the 
fingers  and  toes.  From  them  impressions  have  to  pass  through 
some  feet  of  nervous  chord,  some  inches  of  the  spinal  mar- 
row, and  a  portion  more  or  less  considerable  of  the  brain 
itself.     Here  then  is  ample  scope  for  irregular  action,  and 
consequent  deception.     For  the  immediate  physical  cause 
of  our  perceiving  external  things,  must  be  a  certain  con- 
dition of  that  portion  of  the  cerebral  substance,  which  is 
last  affected  antecedently  to  the  act  of  perception.     It  is 
therefore  absolutely  certain  if  that  portion  can,  through 
any  other  agency  whatsoever,  be  thrown  into  the  same 
condition  which  ordinarily  causes  us  to  perceive  exterior 
objects ;  the  mind  in  both  instances  being  acted  upon  in 
the  same  manner,  must  come  to  the  same  conclusion.    But 
in  one  instance  we  have,  or  suppose  we  have,  an  external 
tangible  cause  for  such  conclusion.     Whereas  in  the  other, 
there  is  by  hypothesis,  nothing  of  the  kind.     All  we  have 
to  do  then  is  to  convert  the  hypothesis  into  fact. 

Before  attempting  this,  however,  I  have  to  admit  that 
not  knowing  what  is  the  precise  state  of  the  deeper  seated 
parts  of  the  nervous  system,  which  is  the  immediate  ante- 
cedent of  sensation  and  perception,  I  cannot  demonstrate 
that  that  state  is  always  the  same,  whenever  those  mental 
results  occur.     But  I  can  demonstrate  what  answers  my 


MATERIALISM. 


purpose  equally  well— that  the  mind  does  through  internal 
physical  agency,  that  is,  internal  as  regards  the  distant 
sentient  extremities  of  our  nerves,  and  independently  of 
impressions  upon  those  extremities,  go  through  precisely 
the  same  operations,  and  arrive  at  the  same  results  (i)  with 
those  usually  ascribed  to  the  action  of  external  physical 
objects.  It  follows  consequently  that  an  idea  which  may 
be  true  in  one  instance,  is  certainly  false  in  the  other.  But 
where,  in  philosophical  language,  we  have  an  event  some- 
times preceded  by  a  particular  antecedent,  and  sometimes 
not  so  preceded,  we  are  not  authorized  to  predicate  uni- 
versally that  such  antecedent  and  consequent,  stand  to- 
wards each  other  in  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect.  And 
consequently  we  cannot  affirm  in  any  given  case,  other 
proof  being  absent,  because  we  observe  the  second  of  these 
events,  that  therefore  the  first  has  preceded  it.  Yet  our 
senses  are  necessarily  the  sole  witnesses  upon  whose  tes- 
timony we  have  to  rely,  for  our  belief  in  an  external 
world.  It  becomes  then  a  question  of  fact,  whether 
these  witnesses  do  ever  play  us  false — that  is,  whether  our 
nervous  machinery  does  fabricate  and  impart  to  the  mind 
clear  and  distinct,  but  unfounded  notions  ?  Now  that  this 
happens  frequently,  and  that  it  may  be  made  to  happen  at 
any  time  is  certain.  For  in  the  first  place,  we  have  occa- 
sionally dreams  depending  upon  nervous  irritation,  which 
give  the  most  vivid  ideas  of  external  things,  independently 
of  all  external  agency.  Secondly,  we  have  a  large  num- 
ber of  maniacs  whose  disease  consists  entirely  in  erroneous 
impressions,  communicated  by  their  organs  of  sense.  In 
these  persons  the  mind  reasons  logically,  but  from  false 
premises,  deceived  by  the  channels  through  which  it  is 
obliged  to  receive  its  data.* 

(f)  See  note  at  the  end. 

*  It  may  perhaps  be  objected,  that  these  cases  prove  nothing,  since  mad- 
men furnish  the  example.  To  this  I  reply,  there  is  no  evidence  of  which 
I  am  aware,  to  evince  that  we  who  conceive  ourselves  sane,  are  right  in 


30  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

Thirdly,  it  is  a  well  known  fact,  that  where  a  lower 
limb  has  been  removed,  the  patient  "  feels  his  toes,"  as  he 
expresses  it,  for  some  weeks  afterwards.  The  nerves 
which  were  formerly  continued  to  those  members  being  in 
a  state  of  irritation,  undergo  the  same  changes  they  for- 
merly did,  affect  the  brain  consequently  in  the  same  man- 
ner, and  lead  the  mind  to  the  same  conclusion.  Now  here 
it  is  evident  that  but  for  the  memory,  the  eye,  and  the 
Sense  of  Touch,  in  the  other  parts  of  the  body,  the  patient 
would  still  believe  the  amputated  toes  to  be  in  their  wonted 
situation.  And  for  this  belief  he  would  have  all  the  evidence 
that  what  is  commonly  called  consciousness*  could  afford 
him. 

Precisely  the  same  phenomena,  physical  and  metaphy- 
sical, are  of  perpetual  occurrence  in  what  are  now  called 
cases  of  spinal  irritation.  Thus  a  gentleman  of  high  rank 
in  the  law,  walking  in  the  street,  felt  what  he  imagined  a 
chip  or  other  hard  substance  in  his  shoe.  He  stept  into  a 
store  to  remove  the  extraneous  body,  and  thus  relieve  him- 
self from  the  pain  which  he  supposed  it  caused  him.  Upon 
taking  off  shoe  and  stocking,  to  his  amazement,  nothing 
could  be  found.  And  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  quote  myself 
as  authority,  I  can  state  that  having  been  for  many  years, 
as  I  suppose,  the  subject  of  this  affection  of  the  spine,  I 
have  probably  an  hundred  times  felt  pains  about  my  hands 


our  notions  other  than  this — we  all  concur.  There  was,  therefore,  more 
than  wit  in  the  reply  of  the  lunatic,  who  discoursed  so  sensibly,  that  some 
one  was  induced  to  ask  him  why  he  had  been  consigned  to  an  asylum  1 
"  He  knew  not,"  he  said,  "  except  that  he  and  mankind  differed  as  to  cer- 
tain particulars,  and  the  majority  being  against  him,  they  had  locked  him 
up." 

*  Consciousness,  as  before  stated,  is  restricted  in  metaphysical  lan- 
guage to  the  experiencing  of  a  sensation  excluding  every  subsequent  af- 
fection of  the  mind.  And  we  now  see  the  propriety  of  the  limitation,  as 
otherwise  consciousness  itself  might  practise  tricks  upon  us.  In  that 
case,  upon  what  could  we  rely  % 


MATERIALISM.  31 

and  fingers,  and  which  were  sometimes  unpleasantly  sharp, 
precisely  as  if  some  cutting  instrument  were  dividing  the 
skin.  I  have  sat,  feeling  the  sensation,  and  seeing  there 
was  no  external  local  cause  for  it,  and  then  betaken  myself 
to  philosophizing  about  it. 

But  we  have  more  striking,  and  more  baneful  evidence 
of  sympathetic  action  between  the  origin  and  termina- 
tion of  the  nerves.  It  is  now  well  known  that  the  heart, 
lungs,  stomach,  &c.  &c.  not  only  cause  us  to  suffer,  but 
to  die  from  disease,  commencing  in  the  proximate,  and 
then  transferred  to  the  distant  extremities  of  the  nervous 
filaments  with  which  these  organs  are  supplied.  Accord- 
ingly of  the  multitude  of  victims  to  consumption,  not  a 
small  proportion  are  secondary,  not  primary  cases.* 

But  fourthly,  we  can  at  any  time  cause  our  fingers  to  fall 
into  error,  by  crossing  the  first  and  second,  and  placing  a 
pea  between  them  and  the  palm  of  the  other  hand.  When 
this  experiment  is  performed  a  distinct  impression  of  two 
round  bodies  is  received. 

Lastly,  every  mother's  son  of  us  is  deceived,  as  far  as 
all  our  senses  can  deceive  us,  in  relation  to  the  motions  of 
the  Sun  and  the  Earth. 

It  follows  then,  that  the  hypothesis  which  I  undertook 
to  convert   into  fact,  has  been  so  converted.     In  other 

*  Thousands  of  teeth  have  been  drawn  which  were  perfectly  sound. 
Thus,  I  was  consulted  by  the  wife  of  a  medical  man,  whose  life  had  been 
thought  in  danger,  through  distress  and  loss  of  rest  from  toothache. 
Tooth  after  tooth  had  been  drawn,  without  relief.  On  examining  her 
mouth,  and  observing  no  defect  in  those  which  remained,  and  under- 
standing  none  had  been  discovered  in  those  which  had  been  removed,  I 
suspected  the  disease  to  be  sympathetic,  prescribed  a  few  doses  of  calo- 
mel and  jalap,  and  cured  the  patient, 


32  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

words,  I  have  proved  our  nervous  machinery  does  occsion- 
ally  originate  within  itself,  and  impart  to  the  mind  clear 
and  distinct,  but  unfounded  notions  of  external  things. 
The  conclusion  then  is  unavoidable,  that  all  absolute  cer- 
tainty as  to  the  existence  of  matter  is  precluded  by  the 
moral  constitution  with  which  we  have  been  endowed  by 
our  Maker,  and  therefore,  as  I  before  stated,  Materialists 
like  the  rest  of  mankind,  must  be  satisfied  with  belief,  since 
to  know  has  not  been  vouchsafed  to  them  or  us. 

Having  now  completed  the  promised  analysis,  we  are 
prepared  to  specify  and  sum  up  the  results  which  have 
been  obtained.  They  are  as  follows :  the  mind  is  con- 
scious of  the  sensation  resistance  :  that  quality  as  the  mind 
infers,  appertains  to  something  external  and  foreign  to  it- 
self, which  something  the  mind  conceives  to  exist  in  time 
and  space.* 

Now  I  beg  you  to  observe  how  manifest  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  foregoing  enumeration,  is  the  primary  and 
pervading  action  of  the  mind,  and  how  secondary,  subor- 
dinate, and  dependent,  is  our  belief  in  matter.  Will  then, 
the  Materialists,  with  this  sequence  of  facts  before  them, 
persist  in  a  doctrine  which  inverts  the  order  of  events  ? 
If  so,  they  should  in  fairness,  I  think,  acknowledge  and 
premise  the  peculiarities  which  distinguish  a  school,  where 
conclusions  have  no  relation  to  premises,  and  where  effects 
are  follovjed  by  causes.  In  virtue  of  the  first  of  which 
new  rules  of  philosophizing,  the  inquirer  is  led  from  the 

*  It  would  be  of  course  ridiculous  to  state  all  these  circumstances  on 
every  occasion,  to  say  I  feel  this  or  that  thing  being  quite  sufficient  for 
the  ordinary  purposes  of  life.  But  this  brief  mode  expression,  though 
admirable  for  the  despatch  of  business,  is  not  equally  favourable  to  ful- 
ness and  accuracy  of  thought.  Home  Tooke's  motto  therefore  to  the 
Diversions  of  Purley,  Dum  brevis  esse  laboro  obscures  jio,  is  true  to  a 
greater  extent  than  that  acute  grammarian  was  perhaps  aware  of. 


MATERIALISM.  33 

admission  of  passive  substance  to  the  denial  of  independent 
intelligence  ;  and  in  compliance  with  the  second,  mind,  the 
power  recognizing  matter,  is  held  to  be  derived  from  that 
matter  with  which  itself  has  made  us  acquainted  ! 

Having  thus  'denuded,  and  thereby  been  enabled  to 
rectify  the  errors  of  my  unfortunate  opponents,  with  one  fur- 
ther remark,  I  will  submit  my  cause  to  their,  I  flatter  myself, 
now  enlightened  common-sense.  The  remark  is  this  :  It  is 
alleged,  that  according  to  my  own  admissions,  there  may  be 
but  a  single  basis — a  solitary  substratum  for  all  the  pheno- 
mena which  we  witness,  or  are  conscious  of.  Then  why  not, 
it  has  been  asked,  call  that  substratum  matter,  and  not  mind? 
I  reply,  although  it  is  a  self-evident  truth,  that  nothing  what- 
soever can  be  present  to  the  mind,  except  its  own  impres- 
sions, and  that  therefore  its  existence  is  alone  absolutely 
certain.  Yet  I  think  I  have  demonstrated  that  under  the 
circumstances  which  I  have  mentioned,  we  infer  with  a 
force  entirely  irresistable,  the  cause  of  those  impressions  to 
be  something  external  to  the  percipient  power,  and  alto- 
gether different  from  it.  There  is,  consequently,  sufficient 
evidence  to  establish  the  existence  of  two  substrata,  be- 
tween which,  as  far  as  we  can  discover,  there  is  no  re- 
semblance. Now,  I  ask  in  my  turn,  if  that  can  be  called 
philosophy  which  rejects  a  conclusion  regularly  deduced 
from  undeniable  premises,  and  adheres  to  an  hypothesis 
whose  only  support  is  a  conceivable  possibility,  that  it  may 
accord  with  the  truth  ? 

I  have  thus,  gentlemen,  in  an  argument  too  long,  I  fear, 
but  as  plain  as  some  thought  and  labour  could  render  it, 
exposed  the  mistakes  into  which  the  Materialists  have  fallen. 
But  my  design  would  not  be  consummated  did  I  not  point 
out  what,  with  regard  to  the  great  mass  of  these  misguided 
persons  is,  I  am  confident,  the  source  of  their  misfortune. 


34  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

It  results  from  a  delusion  common  to  the  whole  race,  and 
one  in  which  of  course,  primarily,  we  all  participate.  It 
is  this  :  Until  disabused  by  science,  we  confound  famili- 
arity with  knowledge.  Thus  ask  an  ordinary  person  why 
water  runs  down  a  hill,  and  if  he  thinks  you  serious,  he  will 
be  amazed  you  do  not  understand  so  plain  a  thing.  If, 
however,  you  speak  to  him  of  water  flowing  up  a  moun- 
tain, you  will  make  him  stare.  Yet  one  of  these  events, 
antecedently  to  experience,  was  just  as  probable  as  the 
other, nor  would  one  have  been  one  whit  more  inexplicable, 
than  is  the  other.  For  what  is  called  an  explanation  of  the 
descent  of  bodies,  is  a  mere  declaration  that  it  takes  place 
not  only  here,  but  throughout  the  Solar,  and  most  probably 
the  Stellar  System  also.  But  to  show  the  indefinite  exten- 
sion of  a  fact,  can  surely  throw  no  light  upon  the  cause 
of  that  fact. 

Precisely  in  the  same  manner,  from  our  earliest  infancy, 
we  are  conversant  with  matter  in  the  bodies  by  which  we 
are  surrounded.  This  matter  we  think  consequently  we 
understand  perfectly.  But  when  at  a  later  period  of  life, 
our  attention  is  turned  to  the  operations  of  our  minds,  we 
are  at  once  aware  we  know  not  their  nature.  As  this  dis- 
covery is  usually  made  when  our  curiosity,  being  just 
awakened,  is  most  intense,  this  state  of  acknowledged  ig- 
norance is  exceedingly  embarrassing.  A  Materialist  comes 
across  us,  and  says,  "  do  not  be  uneasy.  There  is  no  diffi- 
culty— no  new  agent  in  the  case,  your  old  and  familiar 
friend  matter  will  account  for  all."  This  assurance  is 
urged  so  confidently,  and,  is  at  first,  so  satisfactory,  that 
it  would  be  received  far  more  generally  than  it  is,  but  for 
two  considerations.  These  are,  first,  the  sentiment  of  re- 
ligion, and  secondly,  self-respect.  Of  the  former,  I  shall 
have  something  to  say  by-and-by,  and  with  it  the  lat- 
ter co-operates,  not  readily  allowing  us  to  admit  that  we 
differ  in  nothing  from  a  clod  or  a  cabbage,  save  in  the  num- 


ATHEISM.  35 


ber,  variety,  and  arrangement  of  our  atoms.  The  meta- 
physician now  steps  in,  and  shows,  that  the  pretended  ex- 
planation is  no  explanation  at  all,  since  we  know  no  more 
what  gives  rise  to  physical,  than  we  do  what  produces 
moral  phenomena. 

The  same  refined,  but  not  therefore  inaccurate  reasoner, 
further  insists,  and  as  to  the  bare  fact,  every  one  of  neces- 
sity accords  with  him,  that  there  are  two  trains  of  events 
going  on,  the  one  within,  the  other  without  us,  which  events 
have  no  similarity — nothing  whatever  in  common.  It  is  not 
therefore  he  says,  more  a  maxim  in  philosophy,  than  a  dic- 
tate of  sound  sense,  that  causes  cannot  be  entirely  the  same, 
where  effects  are  utterly  diverse. 

On  the  whole,  then,  I  trust  the  problem  has  been  solved, 
and  that  it  has  been  proved  that  there  "  does  more  than  a 
single,  solitary  element  enter  into  the  composition  of  man." 
That  though  "  formed  of  the  dust,"  as  he  doubtless  was,  yet 
was  there  "  breathed  into  his  nostrils"  by  his  Creator  a 
more  subtile— a  diviner  essence.  And  this  brings  us  to 
the  second  branch  of  our  subject.  Had  man  indeed  a  Cre- 
ator, or  more  generally,  had  the  universe  one,  or  has  it  ex- 
isted from  all  eternity  ? 

That  it  has  so  existed  is  maintained  by  a  class  of  reason- 
ed, who  have  wandered  still  more  widely,  and  more  de- 
plorably from  the  right  path,  than  those  whose  errors  we 
have  just  been  combating.  I  allude  to  the  Atheists.  Their 
number  is,  I  believe,  small,  but  they  rank  among  them 
some  eminent  names,  that  of  La  Place  for  example. 

In  opposing  the  doctrines  of  these  unhappy  persons,  it 
would  be,  of  course,  useless  to  quote  the  Bible.  The  argu- 
ment must,  therefore,  be  one  of  pure  philosophy.  And  the 
mode  in  which  I  propose  to  conduct  it,  is  to  inquire 


36  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

whence  has  arisen  the  belief  of  a  Supreme  Being  in  the 
minds  of  men,  who  from  the  times  in  which  they  flourished, 
or  the  countries  in  which  they  lived,  could  never  have 
heard  of  Revelation  ? 

Preparatory  to  the  proposed  investigation,  I  must  pre- 
mise a  distinction,  which  has,  I  apprehend,  been  sometimes 
lost  sight  of.  We  must  not  confound  the  source  of  the 
primary  idea  of  the  Deity,  with  the  corroborations  impart- 
ed to  that  idea,  by  subsequent  observations  and  reflections, 
after  it  has  been  once  conceived. 

The  idea  itself,  under  the  circumstances  supposed,  has 
been  ascribed  to  the  four  following  causes  ;  and  I  cannot 
imagine  a  fifth. 

To  Tradition. 

To  the  doctrine  of  Physical  Causes. 

Final  Causes. 
To  the  workmanship  of  the  Mind  itself. 

I  shall  examine  them  in  the  order  in  which  they  are 
stated. 

Those  who  rely  on  the  argument  from  tradition,  sup- 
pose that  the  information  imparted  to  our  first  parents,  has 
been  handed  down  to  the  present  day,  from  generation  to 
generation,  in  every  part  of  the  world. 

But  this  theory  can  avail  nothing  with  our  opponents, 
who  would  call  upon  us  to  prove  the  communication  of 
the  alleged  information,  which  it  is  clear  we  cannot  do  to 
their  satisfaction.  And  to  me,  I  must  confess,  the  sup- 
posed tradition  seems  entirely  incredible.  Can  it  be  be- 
lieved that  savages,  pressed  from  birth  to  death  by  the 
want  of  raiment,  food,  and  shelter,  in  so  much  that  some 


ATHEISM.  37 

have  been  found  who  were  ignorant  of  the  use  of  fire  ;  can 
it  be  believed,  I  say,  that  such  stupid,  starving  creatures, 
would  preserve  from  age  to  age  for  thousands  of  years,  a 
truth  sublime  indeed,  but  having  no  reference  to  their 
daily  exigencies  ? 

Lastly,  the  case  of  Julia  Brace  seems  to  me  conclusive. 
Though  as  before  stated,  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind,  she  was,  I 
understand,  manifestly  impressed  with  the  conviction  of  a 
Superior  Power.  How  could  she  have  obtained  the  idea 
through  the  ear,  or  any  other  of  her  senses  ? 

The  philosophical  train  of  reasoning  most  commonly  re- 
lied upon  by  Theists,  until  the  recent  investigations  with  re- 
gard to  final  causes,  was  deduced  from  what  are  denomi- 
nated physical  causes.  The  argument  has  been  usually 
thus  stated  :  As  we  never  see  an  effect  without  a  cause, 
if  we  extend  the  chain  sufficiently,  we  must  ultimately  ar- 
rive at  the  First  Cause. 

But  this  logical  formula  has,  I  fear,  no  greater  claims  to 
accuracy  than  that  of  the  Materialists  upon  which  I  have 
just  descanted  so  much  at  large.  For,  in  the  first  place, 
the  use  of  the  word  effect,  involves  something  like  apetitio 
principii,  or,  at  any  rate,  takes  causation  for  granted,  and 
this  must  be  proved  and  not  assumed. 

Secondly.  Whether  there  be  any  such  thing  as  causa- 
tion or  not,  it  is  certain  we  do  not  see  it.  What  we  do  see 
are  events — a  series  of  events,  and  nothing  more.  One 
follows  another  regularly  in  point  of  time,  but  invariability 
of  sequence  is  all  it  is  possible  for  us  to  observe.  Thus  the 
bullet  is  projected  from  the  gun' after  the  ignition  of  the 
powder.  To  that  substance  a  spark  had  been  applied, 
&c.  &c.    Here  are  occurrences,  and  occurrences  alone  ; 


38  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

and  however  long  the  chain  might  be,  its  character  would 
not  be  altered— physical  events  at  first,  and  physical  events 
throughout.  But  these  will  not  answer  our  purpose,  and  a 
new  element  must  consequently  be  introduced  into  the 
reasoning.  That  element  has  been  stated  to  be  the  con- 
stitution of  the  human  mind,  which,  it  is  alleged,  compels 
it  to  believe,  that  there  is  a  power  in  the  antecedent,  which 
causes  the  subsequent  incident.  Granting  there  is  such  a 
conviction,  and  such  a  power  also,  yet  the  latter,  if  it  exist, 
is  never  manifested  except  between  two  events,  and  conse- 
quently can  never  be  proved  to  have  produced  the  first  of 
those  events.  But  it  is  a  power  antecedent  to  the  primary 
movement  in  matter  that  we  seek  ;  with  secondaries,  ex- 
cept as  scaffolding,  we  have  no  concern.  And  let  it  not 
be  said,  that  as  matter  is  altogether  passive,  motion  in  it 
could  never  have  commenced  but  for  some  agency  different 
in  its  nature  from  matter.  For  however  this  may  be,  the 
remark  is  of  no  value,  because  mind  is  in  precisely  the  same 
predicament — action  invariably  requiring,  so  far  as  we  can 
ascertain,  or,  in  truth,  conceive,  antecedent  and  continued 
causation,  without  the  slightest  reference  to  the  subject  of 
that  action. 

Lastly,  the  Atheists  insist  that  the  series  of  phenomena 
which  is  going  on  before  our  eyes,  had  no  beginning,  and 
will  have  no  end — an  affirmation,  which  it  would,  I  appre- 
hend, be  difficult  to  impugn  by  any  species  of  proof  to 
which  they  will  listen,  unless  perchance  the  following  ar- 
gument should  find  favour  with  some  of  them.  It  is  far 
too  refined  and  elaborate  I  admit,  as,  is  in  truth,  all  argu- 
mentation that  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject, 
for  the  minds  of  Caffres  and  New-Hollanders.  But  where 
there  is  greater  reach,  and  more  cultivation  of  intellect,  it 
may  have  its  weight.  At  any  rate,  attaching  importance 
to  it  myself,  I  am  willing  to  submit  it  to  the  judgement  of 
others. 


ATHEISM.  39 

As  the  basis  of  my  reasoning,  I  have  to  assume,*  that 
the  Atheists  have  positive  doctrines  of  some  kind  or  other. 
For  where  they  take  the  ground  mentioned  by  Mr.  Hume,  (J) 
that  we  observe  certain  circumstances  which  pass  with- 
out us,  and  are  conscious  of  various  sensations  which  occur 
within  us,  and  as  beyond  these  we  can  perceive  nothing, 
so  beyond  them  we  will  infer  nothing  ;  if,  I  say,  we  are  to 
be  thus  estopped,  why  then,  undoubtedly,  as  all  exercise  of 
our  reason  is  precluded,  that  faculty  can  neither  establish 
nor  refute  any  proposition  whatsoever.  But  if  the  Athe- 
ists will  advance  a  single  step  beyond  this  position  ;  if  they 
will  acknowledge,  that  our  discursive  are  not  inferior  to 
our  perceptive  faculties,  and  consequently,  supposing  the 
logic  to  be  sound,  equally  entitled  to  command  the  assent 
of  the  understanding,  why  then  I  think  they  may  be  dealt 
with.  For  my  unfortunate  opponents  having  proceeded 
thus  far,  will  probably  admit  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
matter,  and  that  it  is  governed  by  laws  which  are  uniform. 
They,  in  truth,  cannot  object.  A  disciple  of  Berkeley  in- 
deed, if  he  who  was 

"  Endowed  with  every  virtue  under  Heaven," 

have  now  on  earth  a  disciple,  may  plead  his  privilege. 
But  a  Berkeleyan  and  I  agree  on  this  occasion,  and  all  others 
must  concede  what  I  ask.  With  these  concessions  then, 
reasonable,  as  I  think,  in  themselves,  and  which,  so  far 
as  they  are  ad  hominem,  cannot  be  refused  me,  I  hope  to 
make  out  my  case.     Let  us  now  see  if  this  can  be  done. 


*  It  may  be  necessary  to  apprize  some  of  my  readers,  that  where  nothing 
is  granted,  nothing  can  be  proved.  The  object  of  all  ratiocination  is  to 
show,  that  the  proposition  to  be  established  is  contained  in  some  other 
proportions  more  or  less  remote,  which  are  admitted  to  be  true.  The 
primary  propositions  must  therefore  of  necessity  be  conceded  by  both  par- 
ties, and  ought  always  to  be  premised,  as  Euclid  has  done  with  his  pos- 
tulates. 

(j)  See  note  at  the  end. 


40  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

If  the  substance  matter  exist  now,  it  must  have  existed 
from  all  eternity,  or  it  has  been  created  in  time.  But  if 
created  in  time,  then  it  has  been  called  into  existence  by 
some  quality  inherent  in  itself,  or  by  a  power  both  antece- 
dent and  extrinsic.  The  former  hypothesis,  however,  is 
inadmissible,  because  it  involves  the  absurdity  of  supposing 
this  creative  quality  to  have  preceded  the  genesis  of  the 
very  material  to  which  it  appertains,  and  from  which  it 
cannot  be  separated  even  in  imagination.  A  definition  in- 
deed settles  the  point,  since  the  very  term  "  quality"  implies 
a  previous  something,  of  which  that  quality  is  to  be  predi- 
cated. In  other  words,  "  the  wonderful  fecundity  of  mat- 
ter," as  La  Place  has  it,  could  not  have  been  prior  to  mat- 
ter itself.  It  may  be  held,  consequently,  as  a  demonstrated 
truth,  that  if  created  at  all,  matter  is  indebted  for  its  origin 
to  a  source  other,  greater,  and  more  ancient  than  itself — 
that  is,  to  the  Supreme  Being.  But  this,  of  course,  our 
antagonists  will  not  allow  ;  and  those  who  admit  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  matter  at  all,  maintain  that  it  has  existed 
from  eternity. 

But  if  matter  have  existed  from  eternity,  then  its  laws 
have  been  also  in  operation  from  eternity.  For  other- 
wise those  laws  have  been  impressed  upon  it  in  time,  and 
by  some  external  and  superior  power,  since  matter  could  no 
more  impose  new  laws  upon  itself,  than  it  could  create  it- 
self. Our  opponents,  however,  will  no  more  acknowledge 
such  a  power  in  this  case,  than  in  the  former.  The 
eternity  of  matter,  therefore,  and  the  co-eternity  of  its 
laws,  are  two  propositions  by  which  our  adversaries  must 
stand  or  fall.  If  either  fail  them,  their  only  alternative  is 
to  enlarge  their  creed,  or  abandon  their  reason. 

It  only  remains,  then,  to  be  seen,  whether  one,  or  still 
more,  whether  both  of  these  positions  can  be  successfully 


ATHEISM.  41 

assailed.  In  attacking  them,  I  shall  begin  with  the  second, 
and  confine  myself  to  the  chemical  laws  of  matter,  as  the 
argument  deduced  from  them  is  equally  conclusive  as  from 
any,  or  all  the  others.  Let  us  then  endeavour  to  ascertain 
whether  there  has  been  no  commencement  to  the  action, 
that  is,  to  the  existence  of  these  laws.  For  no  one,  I  pre- 
sume, will  contend  that  chemical  affinities  lay  dormant  for 
countless  ages,  and  then  spontaneously  burst  forth  with  all 
their  energies. 

It  is  a  self-evident  truth,  that  if  the  universe  were  com- 
posed of  one  simple  chemical  element,  no  chemical  action 
could  ensue.  If  it  were  composed  of  two,  having  an  affin- 
ity for  each  other,  they  would  combine,  and  then  their  mu- 
tual agency  would  cease.  Were  there  three  elements  only, 
two  might  first  unite,  and  they  with  the  third.  Were  four 
the  number,  an  additional  combination  might  take  place, 
&c.  The  general  proposition  cannot  then,  I  think,  be  contro- 
verted, that  in  a  body  or  system  of  bodies,  where  the  number 
of  chemical  elements,  how  great  soever,  is  limited  at  all,  the 
number  of  chemical  changes  which  those  elements  can  under- 
go is  also  limited*  But  these  changes  being  in  constant 
progression,  time  is  the  only  condition  requisite  for  their 
completion.  They  are  not  yet  completed,  however.  They 
have  not,  therefore,  been  going  on  iYom  all  eternity,  since 
in  eternity  time  must  have  perfected  whatever  time  can 
accomplish.     There  was,  of  course,  a  period    at  which 


*  As  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  number  of  chemical  combinations  not  only 
cannot  exceed  the  number  of  chemical  elements,  but,  if  these  be  limited, 
must  be  one  less.  Yet  these  elements  themselves  bear  an  inconceivably 
small  ratio  to  the  amount  of  material  particles,  since  all  the  existing  atoms 
of  sodium,  for  instance,  supposing  that  to  be  a  simple  substance,  constitute 
but  one  element  in  chemistry.  Hence,  according  to  the  doctrine  hereaf- 
ter to  be  maintained  by  the  Atheists,  it  will  follow  that  there  are  two 
things  infinitely  numerous ;  one  of  which  is,  nevertheless,  to  the  extent 
of  our  comprehension,  infinitely  less  numerous  than  the  other. 

6 


42  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

as  no  chemical  changes  occurred,  there  could  be  no  chemi- 
cal laws.  These  laws  consequently  did  not  then  exist. 
They  have  necessarily,  therefore,  originated  in  time,  and  as 
they  could  neither  create  themselves,  nor  be  created  by 
matter,  they  must  have  been  impressed  upon  matter  by 
some  external  and  superior  power,  which  was  to  be  prov- 
ed. 

Again.  In  every  case  of  chemical  action,  the  stronger 
affinities  overcome  the  weaker.  The  tendency,  therefore, 
always  is  to  the  firmest  unions,  and  to  those  ultimately, 
which  are  absolutely  indissoluble.  But  few,  perhaps  none 
of  these  have  as  yet  taken  place.  Now  the  only  element 
which  can  be  wanting  for  that  purpose — the  only  one 
which  is  not  already  present  is  time.  There  has  not,  con- 
sequently, hitherto  been  time  enough  to  effect  at  any  rate, 
all  of  these  irrefragable  combinations.  The  processes 
necessary,  therefore,  for  their  completion,  have  not  been  in 
regular  progression  from  all  eternity,  since  "  in  eternity 
time  must  have  perfected  whatever  time  can  accomplish," 
&c.  &c.  &c. 

But  as  the  foregoing  argument  is  a  very  general  one,  a 
particular  illustration  of  it  may  not  be  superfluous. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  oxygen,  for  example,  has  a  greater* 
attraction  for  some  one  element  than  any  for  other  which 
exists  in  nature.  However  the  fact  may  be,  we  will  call  that 
element  carbon.  With  carbon  then  oxygen  will  unite  in 
preference  to  any  other  substance,  whenever  it  has  an  op- 
portunity of  so  doing.  Its  tendency  to  form  such  a  union 
being  incessant,  as  has  already  been  shown,  and  the  com- 


*  It  would  answer  the  purposes  of  my  argument  equally  well,  to  sup- 
pose the  affinity  of  oxygen  for  carbon  to  be  as  great,  as  for  any  other  sub- 
stance. 


ATHEISM.  43 

bination  when  effected  being  for  ever,  it  is  matter  of  de- 
monstration, that  the  ultimate  result  of  the  chemical  laws 
now  in  operation  must  be  a  state  of  universal  chemical  qui- 
escence. But  as  yet  there  has  not  been  time  for  that  re- 
sult, &c  &c.  (k) 

There  was  then  an  epoch  when  no  chemical  laws  prevail- 
ed. But  matter,  destitute  of  chemical  laws,  is  contrary  to 
all  our  knowledge  and  experience,  and  therefore  its  existence 
in  such  a  state  cannot  be  admitted.  It  follows,  therefore, 
that  as  the  chemical  laws  of  matter  have  had  a  commence- 
ment, so  matter  itself  has  had  a  beginning ;  it  has  conse- 
quently been  created,  and  its  laws  stamped  upon  it  by  a 
superior  Being — the  proposition  which  was  to  be  proved. 

Now  the  only  possible  mode  of  escape  from  the  forego- 
ing conclusion,  is  by  the  adoption  of  three  assumptions,  all 
incomprehensible,  and  all  destitute  of  proof.  The  first  of 
these  is,  that  the  number  of  chemical  elements  in  the  uni- 
verse is  absolutely  unlimited  ;  the  second,  that  these  vari- 
ous elements  are  so  situated  in  space,  as  to  come  within 
the  range  of  their  respective  affinities ;  and  lastly,  that  a 
succession  of  these  elements  has,in  point  of  fact,  acted  from 
eternity  upon  the  mass  of  which  our  globe  is  composed. 

With  respect  to  the  first  of  these,  the  onus  probandi  lies 
perhaps  as  much  on  the  one  side  as  the  other;  we  will  there- 
fore say  no  more  about  it.  The  second  is  rather  unwieldy, 
though  something  like  evidence  in  its  favour  should  be  fur- 
nished. But  the  third  being  the  averment  of  a  specific  fact, 
we  have  a  right  to  ask,  Where  is  your  evidence  ?  If  this  be 
required,  it  is  obliged  to  be  conceded,  there  is  none  of  a 
positive  character,  and  recourse  must  of  consequence  be 

(Jc)  See  note  at  the  end. 


44  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

had  to  the  argumentum  ad  ignorantiam — we  do  not  know 
that  it  has  not  been  so.  But  this  is  altogether  inadmis- 
sible. For  this  were  not  simply  to  reverse  the  order  of  sci- 
ence, but  to  annihilate  science,  since  it  is  the  well-known 
rule  that  in  the  pursuit  of  truth,  we  are  to  proceed  from  the 
known  to  the  unknown.  Whereas,  according  to  Atheistical 
dialectics,  we  are  to  advance  not  only  from  the  unknown 
but  against  the  known.  Yet  what  conclusions  can  stand,  if 
it  be  allowable  to  assail  them  in  this  wise?  And  what  securi- 
ty have  we  for  the  stability  of  the  fabric  of  human  knowledge, 
if  the  sacred  temple  is  to  be  breached  from  batteries  erected 
upon  nothing  ?  The  Atheists,  therefore,  cannot  be  permit- 
ted to  allege  gratuitous  suppositions,  alike  improbable  and 
inconceivable,  and  thus  invalidate  results  regularly  derived 
from  premises  which  are  undeniable.  They  must  conform 
with  greater  strictness  to  the  rules  of  that  philosophy  which 
they  profess  to  hold  in  such  respect,  and  on  which  they 
place  such  exclusive  and  implicit  reliance.  (I) 

But  it  is  not  certain  that  if  the  three  assumptions  which 
I  have  enumerated  were  granted,  my  second  argument 
would  be  thereby  eluded.  To  escape  this,  something  further 
is  required — the  atoms  must  be  not  only  unlimited  in  number, 
but  infinite  in  power.  For  if  the  particle  a  be  chemically 
united  to  the  particle  b,  the  former  must  have  for  the  latter 
a  definite  force  of  attraction,  great  or  small.  But  stronger 
affinities  alone  can  overcome  those  which  are  weaker,  a 
consequently  will  not  reject  b  to  unite  with  c,  except  it 
have  for  c  a  greater  affinity  than  for  b.  By  parity  of  rea- 
soning, c  will  give  place  to  d  only  upon  the  same  principle 
of  superior  force,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  alphabet.  But 
a  power  which  can  act  with  an  energy  perpetually  aug- 
menting through  an  infinite  series,  must  be  itself  infinite. 
a  then  must  have  a  chemical  attraction  which  is  infinite, 

(l)  See  note  at  the  end. 


ATHEISM.  45 

and  that  is  absurd.  Yet  if  this  power  be  finite,  and  be 
placed  in  circumstances  to  exert  itself  without  ceasing, 
sooner  or  later,  it  must  be  neutralized.  This  is  not  yet 
done,  however ;  there  has  not,  hitherto,  been  time  enough 
for  that  effect  to  be  brought  about.  But  in  eternity, 
time  must  have  perfected  whatever  time  can  accom- 
plish. There  was,  of  course,  a  period  at  which  chemical 
laws  did  not  act,  and  consequently  did  not  exist,  they  have 
necessarily,  therefore,  originated  in  time.  If,  however,  such 
were  their  origin,  matter  also,  as  we  have  seen,  has  had  its 
beginning.  But  it  was  proved  at  the  very  outset,  that  mat- 
ter could  create  neither  itself  nor  its  laws — the  one  and  the 
other  therefore  have  had  a  Creator.  Unless,  consequently, 
there  be  in  my  logic  some  flaw  which  I  am  unable  to 
detect,  so  far  from  both  the  positions,  on  which  every  rea- 
soning Atheist  must  rely,  being  impregnable,  neither  can 
be  maintained.  My  argument  then  is  closed — my  task 
completed.  There  is  a  God,  who,  for  reasons  which  seem- 
ed unto  him  good,  has  called  into  existence,  and  stamped 
with  His  Laws*  all  that  we  behold,  and  more  than  we  can 
imagine,  as  was  to  be  demonstrated. 


Having  thus  disposed  of  Physical  Causes,  we  come  now 
to  those  termed  Final. 


The  application  of  that  phrase  to  causes  has  always  ap- 
peared to  me  unfortunate,  since  when  thus  combined,  its 
meaning  cannot  be  understood  without  the  aid  of  a  defini- 
tion. It  refers  to  the  uses  or  ends  for  which  something  is 
made  or  done.  Thus,  to  adopt  Adam  Smith's  illustration, 
the  final  cause  of  the  movements  of  the  hands  of  a  watch, 


*  These  laws,  to  avoid  irreverence,  are  usually  denominated  the  laws 
of  matter,  or,  more  general!}',  those  of  nature. 


46  SENSE    OF    TOUCH, 

is  to  show  us  the  hours  of  the  day,  while  the  efficient  cause 
of  those  movements  is  the  elasticity  of  the  springs  of  the 
machine,  (m)  In  Natural  Theology,  it  has  reference  to 
what  are  supposed  to  be  the  designs  of  the  Divine  Archi- 
tect in  the  construction  and  arrangement  of  the  Solar  Sys- 
tem, and  more  particularly  in  the  organization  of  the  ani- 
mals and  plants  living  upon  the  earth.  The  subject  has 
been  recently  elucidated  much  at  large,  and  in  some  re- 
spectsvery  ably,  in  the  well-known  Bridgewater Treatises. 
But  with  regard  to  the  immediate  object  which  we  have  in 
view,  I  must  say,  that  in  my  estimation,  these  elaborate 
performances  are  a  failure.  He  who  will  not  admit  design, 
and  therefore  infer  a  designer,  from  observing  the  structure 
and  adaptation  to  his  service  of  his  own  hands  and  eyes, 
his  other  organs  and  other  limbs,  may  be  safely  pronounced 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  amount  of  evidence  of  that  descrip- 
tion. 

But  be  that  as  it  may,  for  our  purpose  arguments  de- 
duced from  final  causes  are  of  no  avail.  Since  no  one 
can  imagine  that  tribes  of  savages,  stupid  and  ignorant  as 
they  are  frequently  found  to  be,  would  ever  engage  in 
speculations  so  refined,  and  so  remote  from  the  affairs  of 
ordinary  life,  as  are  reasonings  about  uses  and  ends.  In  a 
philosophical  age  indeed,  considerations  of  this  kind  be- 
come objects  of  attention  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  to  the 
Theist  they  are  highly  curious  and  interesting,  (n)  But  upon 
the  Atheist  I  fear  they  will  have  little  effect,  because  in  my 
humble  judgement  the  whole  doctrine  is  entitled  to  nothing 
like  the  weight  usually  ascribed  to  it.  That  a  designer 
may  be  deduced  from  what  we  observe  in  the  mechanism 
of  animals  and  plants  I  allow.  But  bearing  in  mind  the 
well-known  rule  of  logic,  that  conclusions  can  never  have 
greater  strength  or  breadth,  than  the  premises  from  which 

(m),  (n),  See  notes  at  the  end. 


ATHEISM.  47 

they  are  derived,  I  submit  to  any  person  of  reflection,  how 
poor,  how  inadequate  are  the  impressions  which  the  con- 
templation of  animal  or  vegetable  structure  can  impart,  of 
that  Awful  Being,  the  very  idea  of  "  whose  might,  majesty, 
and  dominion,"  subdues  the  reason,  and  dazzles  to  blind- 
ness the  imagination.  When  sufficiently  recovered  from 
these  overpowering  conceptions  to  exert  his  ordinary  facul- 
ties, nothing  can  exceed  the  littleness,  the  insignificance  of 
man — of  every  thing  which  appertains  to  him,  and  of  every 
thing  by  w7hich  he  is  surrounded.  Nay,  when  entirely  col- 
lected, he  will  perceive  that  he  is  environed  on  every  side 
by  imperfection,  (o)  The  universe,  we  have  seen  tends 
if  not  to  annihilation,  yet  to  a  species  of  death  in  the  close 
of  all  chemical  action,  nay  of  mechanical  motion  also,  if 
some  recent  speculations,  be  wTell  bounded,  which  would 
prove  a  resisting  medium  diffused  throughout  space.  But 
as  for  us  ive  manifestly,  and  every  other  form  that  lives, 
have  appointed  periods  of  birth,  growth,  maturity,  de- 
cline, and  dissolution,  (p)  It  is  in  vain  for  the  Theist  to 
urge  that  this  is  a  part  of  the  plan  of  the  Great  Designer. 
"  True,  most  true,"  the  Atheist  replies,  "  but  that  only  shifts 
the  imperfection  from  the  execution  to  the  scheme,  and  you 
are  not  authorized  to  predicate  omnipotence  and  omnis- 
cience in  the  one  case,  more  than  in  the  other." 

On  the  whole,  then,  I  conclude  that  the  idea  of  a  Su- 
preme Being,  cannot  be  traced  in  every  people  among 
whom  it  is  found,  to  tradition.  I  conclude  further,  that 
reason  alone,  however  confirmatory  of  that  idea  when 
once  developed,  can  never  originate  it  from  the  contempla- 
tion of  either  physical  or  final  causes.  It  follows,  conse- 
quently, we  must  seek  elsewhere  for  its  source,  and  that 
source  can  be  no  other  than  the  workmanship  of  our  own 
minds.     These,  when  properly  constituted,  and  improved 

(o),  (p)  See  note  at  the  end. 


48  SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

to  a  certain,  and  very  moderate  point,  develop  the  deep 
conviction  that  there  is  a  God  ;  (q)  that  he  is  Supreme, 
and  that  we  are  his  dependent  creatures.  Theism  then  is 
of  that  class  of  inherent  feelings  termed  instincts,  and  is 
usually  denominated  the  sentiment  of  religion.*  Dis- 
tinct from  reason,  though  as  we  have  seen,  fortified  by  that 
faculty  when  sufficiently  cultivated  and  enlarged,  it  forms 
the  characteristic  of  our  race.  I  know  of  no  other  attri- 
bute of  man,  in  which  the  lower  animals  do  not  to  a  great- 
er or  less  degree  participate.  But  in  religious  emotions 
he  stands  alone  and  pre-eminent.  I  have  always,  there- 
fore, thought  that  an  individual  who  labours  under  the  griev- 
ous misfortune  of  being  an  Atheist,  having  lost  the  divine 
image  to  which  by  inheritance  he  is  entitled,  so  far  from 
being  reviled  and  upbraided,  should  be  pitied,  soothed,  and, 
if  possible,  restored  to  the  "  high  estate"  from  which  he  has 
fallen.  Then  would  he  recover  his  lost  birth-right,  and  re- 
join the  universal  human  family  in  acknowledging  his  Cre- 
ator, and  in  paying  homage  to  that  Dread  Power,  in  whom 
he  and  we,  and  all,  "  live  and  move,  and  have  our  being." 


*  The  radical  independence  which  exists  between  this  sentiment,  the 
Moral  Sense,  and  the  discursive  faculty  being  established,  as  these  ele- 
ments commingle  in  every  conceivable  proportion  indifferent  individuals, 
we  are  at  no  loss  to  understand  anomalies  which  we  so  often  see,  and 
have  occasion  to  lament.  The  first  may  be  exalted,  the  second  obtunded 
or  vitiated,  the  third  perverted.  Or  contrariwise,  the  last  may  be  sound, 
the  second  sensitive  and  correct,  but  the  first  torpid.  In  a  perfect  charac- 
ter, each  would  exert  its  proper  influence,  while  a  just  and  controlling 
judgment  reigned  paramount  over  all. 

(q)  See  note  at  the  end. 


FINIS. 


NOTES 


(a)  An  animal  may  be  defined  physically  an  organized  substance,  hav- 
ing a  distinct  receptacle  for  food — that  is,  some  cavity  which  answers  the 
purposes  of  a  stomach.  Metaphysically,  an  animal  is  a  being  which  has  an 
idea  of  itself,  as  contradistinguished  from  all  other  things  or  existences 
in  nature.  But  here  a  difficulty  arises.  A  polypus  may  be  divided  into 
two,  and  each  portion  acquiring  a  new  stomach,  is  thence  forward  a  new 
animal.  But  two  may,  it  is  said,  be  blended  into  one.  Now,  in  that 
case,  what  becomes  of  their  previously  distinct  personal  identity  1  Per- 
haps, as  in  a  bicephalus  terrapin  exhibited  some  years  ago,  there  are 
two  minds  to  one  body. 

(b)  In  animalcules,  these,  or  whatever  other  senses  they  may  possess 
must,  when  compared  with  ours,  be  immeasurably  accute,  since  to  our 
dull  organs,  unless  aided  by  powerful  magnifiers,  their  food,  their  foes, 
nay,  themselves,  are  imperceptible.  Those  pests,  too,  which  prey  upon 
us,  show  a  preference  for  some  individuals,  and  an  aversion  to  others. 
The  predilection  of  musquitoes  for  strangers  is  well  known ;  and  fleas 
have  also  their  favourites.  Thus,  I  know  a  gentleman  who  declares  the 
former  never  molest  him,  and  if  by  any  accident  one  of  the  latter  makes 
a  lodgment  about  his  person,  the  only  annoyance  he  suffers,  results  from 
the  rambles  over  his  body,  of  the  animal  in  his  efforts  to  escape,  which  he 
never  fails  to  do  on  the  first  opportunity. 

(c)  Nothing,  in  my  opinion,  proves  so  conclusively  the  deplorable  want 
of  sound  learning  in  the  medical  students,  generally  speaking,  of  our 
country,  as  the  spread  among  the  profession  of  the  notions  of  Mons. 
Broussais.  I  am  confident  that  if  one  thousand  lads  of  good  understand- 
ing, were  taken  and  carried  regularly  through  the  higher  branches  of 
philosophy,  not  half  a  dozen  would  be  disturbed  by  his  metaphysics,  and 
not  even  one  would  pause  ere  he  rejected  his  medical  doctrines,  so  pal- 
pably are  they  at  variance  with  facts,  for  which  we  have  all  the  testimony 
our  senses  can  afford. 


50  NOTES. 

Luckily  a  reformation  as  regards  moral,  and  which  it  is  earnestly  hoped 
will  extend  to  medical  science,  has  commenced  in  Paris  under  Royer 
Collard.  Coussin,  too,  has  ranged  himself  under  the  banner  of  truth,  but 
he  has  borrowed  from  the  school  of  Kant  and  his  disciples.  How  far  this 
may  be  an  improvement,  I  cannot  say,  German  metaphysics  having  al- 
ways foiled  my  efforts  to  understand  them.  But,  at  any  rate,  a  spice  of 
mysticism  is  preferable  to  the  chilling  errors  of  the  followers  of  Cabanis. 


This  note  refers  to  page  10,  line  9,  the  reference  being  omitted  by  mistake. 

In  this  appeal  to  common  sense,  and  denunciation  of  metaphysical  rea- 
soning, the  Materialists  are  joined  by  a  large  class  of  persons  of  very  op- 
posite sentiments,  and  it  is  amusing  enough  to  observe  how  the  common 
sense  of  one  of  these  parties  conflicts  with  the  common  sense  of  the  other. 
The  one  it  teaches  they  have  a  mind,  the  other  it  informs  there  is  no  such 
existence.  The  former  it  instructs  in  all  they  wish  to  know,  or  believe 
to  be  knowable,  touching  the  operations  of  that  mind,  while  the  latter  are 
given  to  understand  there  are  no  operations  of  the  kind.  It  follows,  of 
course,  they  both  agree  that  to  investigate  mental  phenomena  is  an  idle 
waste  of  time  and  thought.  And  it  follows  further,  that  when  the  com- 
mon sense  of  the  one  set  comes  into  actual  collision  with  the  common 
sense  of  the  other,  neither  being  furnished  with  facts  or  arguments,  the 
battle  has  to  be  waged  by  an  interchange  of  round  assertions  and  hard, 
words.  After  a  few  broad-sides  of  this  cheap  and  harmless  ammunition, 
they  separate,  each  convinced  that  his  own  common  sense  is  very  wise, 
and  that  of  his  opponent  very  foolish. 

In  addition  to  the  above  anomalies,  I  think  I  have  noticed  some  other 
curious  particulars  connected  with  this  vaunted  power.  In  the  first  place 
it  seems  to  have  little  skill  in  physical,  while  it  luxuriates  in  moral  sci- 
ence. Thus,  I  have  neve?  heard  of  the  man  whose  common  sense  taught 
him  that  the  earth  moved  round  the  sun.  Whereas  I  have  seen  many 
who  derived  from  this  faculty  all  requisite  information,  not  only  in  rela- 
tion to  their  own  minds,  but  on  such  simple  subjects  as  political  economy 
in  general,  and  the  circulating  medium  in  particular. 

Secondly,  I  have  observed  that  those  who  think  they  abound  in  this 
quality  use  the  term,  as  applied  to  themselves,  ironically.  It  is  their  un- 
common sense  which  enables  them  without  an  effort,  to  see  so  much,  and 
so  clearly,  where  those  ordinary  men  Plato  and  Aristotle,  Berkeley  and 
Hume,  and  Adam  Smith,  to  say  nothing  of  living  writers,  Mr.  Gallatin 
among  others,  have  left  some  things  to  be  explained. 

May  I  be  permitted  to  hint  to  these  exceedingly  sharp-sighted  gentle- 
men, it  is  not  always  sufficient  that  we  ourselves  discern  true  results. 
For  if  these  are  in  any  degree  recondite,  we  never  can  be  absolutely  cer- 


NOTES.  51 

tain  they  are  true,  and  therefore  to  be  implicitly  relied  upon,  unless  they 
flow  by  regular  deduction  from  indisputable  premises. 

Moreover,  on  many  occasions,  the  truth  is  of  little  importance,  unless 
we  can  enable  others  to  see  it  as  well  as  ourselves.  Now,  to  do  this  ar- 
rangement, facts,  arguments,  illustrations,  and  precise  phraseology  are  ne- 
cessary, and  these  I  believe  common  sense  does  not  furnish. 

Lastly,  I  apprehend  that  though  men  of  common  sense  may  know  all, 
that  is  true,  yet  they  are  at  the  same  time  apt  to  know  a  good  deal  more. 
It  is  frequently  as  necessary  to  unlearn  as  to  learn ;  study,  therefore,  I 
am  inclined  to  think,  would  improve  even  them  negatively,  if  not  posi- 
tively. Let  them  try  the  experiment  diligently  for  some  years,  and  if 
they  are  not  thereby  rendered  wiser  one  way  or  the  other,  I  for  one  will 
admit,  that  they  are  indeed  very  uncommon  persons. 

This  note  likewise  belongs  to  page  10,  line  13,  also  omitted. 

Suppose  a  person  were  to  go  to  an  astronomer  and  say,  "  Sir,  I  under- 
stand you  assert  that  the  major  axis  of  the  earth's  orbit  is  invariable  in 
its  length.  Now,  I  do  not  believe  one  word  of  that  statement."  "  No !" 
the  man  of  science  would  reply,  "  then  I  will  prove  it  to  you."  If  to  this 
it  were  rejoined,  "  Do  so,  but  recollect  you  are  not  to  employ  for  that  pur- 
pose the  differential,  or  any  similar  calculus,  since  to  nothing  of  the  kind 
will  I  listen.  As  far  as  the  Arabic  numerals  will  go,  I  am  at  your  ser- 
vice, but  beyond  them  I  will  hear  nothing,  and  admit  nothing."  What, 
I  say,  would  be  thought  of  the  wisdom  of  such  a  procedure  ?  Yet,  why 
the  only  guide  to  knowledge  is  to  be  accepted  in  one  case,  and  rejected  in 
another,  I  never  have  been  able  to  understand.  For  all  refined  reason- 
ings, if  correct,  are  to  common  sense,  what  the  calculations  of  astronomers 
are  to  the  four  rules  of  arithmetic— they  are  always  in  unison  so  far  as 
they  go,  but  they  cannot  proceed  equally  far. 

(d)  Excessive  simplification  is  alike  fatal  in  metaphysics  and  medicine. 
In  both,  any  very  comprehensive  hypothesis  may,  from  the  very  circum- 
stance of  its  extreme  generalization,  be  at  once  pronounced  false. 

The  brilliant  discoveries  in  astronomy  have,  I  am  persuaded,  had  an 
ill  effect  on  other  branches  of  knowledge.  The  grandest  of  the  physical 
sciences  stands  doubtless  alone  in  the  singleness  of  its  principle.  In  the 
others,  an  augmentation  in  the  number  of  their  elements  may  not,  as  in 
chemistry,  keep  pace  with  their  improvement,  but  perfect  them  as  we 
may,  the  amount  of  their  ultimate  facts  can  never  be  small. 

(e)  It  is  lamentable  to  see  the  numerous  and  grave  errors  into  which 
theorists  fall,  who  undertake  to  speculate  upon  subjects  of  the  deepest  in- 


52  NOTES. 

terest  to  human  happiness,  from  disregarding  the  two  requisites  stated  in 
the  text.  What  is  remarkable,  such  errors  never,  perhaps,  occur,  at  least 
so  glaringly,  among  physical  inquirers,  where  the  evils  arising  from  such 
blunders  would  be  comparatively  nothing.  Thus,  whether  Berzelius 
should  omit  some  element  in  the  analysis  of  a  mineral,  or  Sir  John  Her- 
schell  should  mistake  a  subsequent  result  for  an  anterior  cause,  might  not 
be  material.  But  in  moral  reasoning,  it  is  absolutely  fatal  to  overlook 
facts,  as  Miss  Martineau  and  others  have  done,  in  relation  to  the  matri- 
monial compact,  and  thus  deduce  a  conclusion,  which  if  acted  on,  would 
uproot  the  very  foundations  of  society.  Or  like  Mr.  Hume  and  his  fol- 
lowers, to  annihilate  virtue  by  transposing,  and  thus  ingeniously  trans- 
forming subsequent  considerations  into  antecedent  and  ruling  motives. 
Or,  after  the  manner  of  some  Southern  gentlemen  of  note  and  talent,  who, 
by  omitting  much  more  than  half  the  facts,  have  contrived  to  prove  that 
slavery  is  beneficial  to  a  new  country,  which  is  found  to  improve  more 
rapidly  from  compulsory  than  from  free  labour.  Of  course  in  estimating 
the  progress  or  condition  of  a  recently  planted  people,  the  only  items  to 
be  computed  are  the  number  of  trees  which  have  been  felled  and  yards  of 
ditch  which  have  been  dug — the  state  of  society  as  regards  its  improve- 
ment, religious,  moral,  and  intellectual,  its  habits  of  feeling  and  thinking, 
and  its  modes  of  acting,  being  counted  for  nothing  ! 

From  what  we  daily  see  and  hear  it  is  evident  that,  as  regards  the 
world,  any  thing  will  pass  for  philosophy,  or  even  fact,  provided  mind  be 
the  subject.  In  that  case  be  the  assertion  ever  so  gross,  the  reasoning 
ever  so  absurd,  or  the  conclusion  ever  so  monstrous,  the  author  need  not 
apprehend  the  want  of  disciples,  nor  fear  detection,  if  to  prevent  the  one, 
or  accomplish  the  other,  his  readers  have  to  turn  their  eyes  inward.  Since 
to  do  that  would  be  to  study  metaphysics  ;  and  who,  in  this  money-loving 
age  and  country,  would  forfeit  his  pretensions  to  common  sense  % 

(/)  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  every  impression  made  upon  our  senses, 
induces  a  belief  more  or  less  vivid,  and  more  or  less  momentary,  or  con- 
tinued in  the  reality  of  the  impressing  cause.  On  the  other  hand,  a  pre- 
conceived notion  predisposes  our  organs  to  convey  impressions  corres- 
ponding with  those  notions.  Hence,  a  firm  conviction  that  spectres  are 
sometimes  visible,  inclines  the  eye  under  appropriate  circumstances,  to 
see  what  it  otherwise  could  not  discern. 

Where  the  mind  is  sound,  reason  readily  corrects  the  false  intelligence 
which  may  be  received  from  without,  except  the  impression  be  exceed- 
ingly intense,  or  both  novel  and  strong.  In  the  former  case,  it  has  more 
than  once  proved  ineffaceable,  producing  mania,  of  course.  As  in  the 
case  which  Garrick  used  to  act  of  the  Grandfather,  who  playing  with  his 
grand-child  out  of  an  upper  window,  the  infant  sprang  from  his  arms, 
and  was  dashed  to  pieces.    For  ever  after  the  miserable  old  man  con- 


NOTES.  53 

ceived  the  horrid  scene  to  be  passing  before  his  eyes.  In  the  latter,  the 
remedy  is  to  repeat  the  impression  at  proper  intervals,  until  the  judgment 
can  master  it.  Thus,  when  a  sailor-boy  first  goes  aloft,  that  his  vision 
may  not  delude  him  with  the  idea  of  danger,  he*is  directed  to  look  up, 
until  habit  can  give  him  confidence  in  his  security. 


(g)  A  great  moral  truth  at  its  first  annunciation,  almost  infallibly  en- 
counters the  opposition  and  reproaches  of  mankind.  Nor  can  this  be 
otherwise,  since  it  is  nearly  certain  to  condemn  some  of  their  cherished 
indulgencies. 

In  former  days  the  promulgators  of  just,  though  obnoxious  doctrines, 
paid  the  penalty  of  their  lives,  for  endeavouring  the  reformation  of  their 
fellow  mortals.  But  thanks  to  modern  improvement,  hard  names  are  the 
only  resource  of  those  whose  logical  ability  is  not  upon  a  par  with  the 
ardour  of  their  zeal.  But  only  let  a  person  cry  out  "  Great  is  Diana  of 
the  Ephesians,"  and  he  and  his  doctrine  are,  for  the  time  at  least,  lauded 
to  the  skies. 

I  have  often  thought  there  is  something  hard  in  the  lot  of  philosophers. 
A  few  indeed,  like  the  mighty  Stagyrite,  Newton,  and  Adam  Smith,  are 
immortalized.  But  ordinarily,  the  fate  of  a  man  of  genius  is  this.  He 
makes  and  proclaims  a  discovery.  In  proportion  to  its  importance,  is  the 
victory  against  him  and  his  doctrines.  Gradually,  however,  the  latter,  if 
sound,  wins  its  way.  As  it  finds  favour  with  the  public,  its  author  is  dis- 
regarded, until  finally  at  the  same  moment  that  his  views  are  adopted  and 
become  common  property,  he  is  himself  forgotten.  How  many  political 
writers  and  speakers  in  this  country,  daily  pour  forth  sentiments,  not  im- 
proved in  the  transmission,  for  which  they  are  ultimately  indebted  to 
Locke  and  Trenchard — men  of  whose  names  they  never  heard  !  Hence, 
nothing  is  more  natural  than  for  people  to  ask  in  all  sincerity,  of  what 
use  are  philosophers  %  For  mankind  at  large,  as  Mr.  Stewart  beautifully 
expresses  it  "  having  in  their  minds  no  point  of  departure,"  are  not  aware 
of  the  progress  they  make,  nor  of  course,  of  their  indebtedness  to  the  real 
authors  of  that  progress.  If  at  all  soured  indeed,  people  are  apt  to  imas 
gine  the  world  has  retrograded  in  their  day.  And  even  where  the  tem- 
perament is  more  happy,  or  fortune  has  proved  more  propitious,  where 
they  are  alive  to  the  immense  advances  which  have  been  made,  are  mak- 
ing, and,  as  I  believe,  will  continue  to  be  made  in  knowledge,  in  virtue, 
and  in  happiness,  they  are  apt  to  be  content  with  their  state  of  fruition, 
without  a  very  strict  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  their  felicity.  He,  there- 
fore, who  wishes  to  add  his  mite  to  the  mass  of  general  improvement  and 
happiness,  must,  like  Mr.  Malthus,  keep  his  temper,  and  practice  patience, 
secure  of  the  applause  of  the  few,  and  regardless  of  the  neglect  of  the 
many.    And  thus  will  he  secure  the  great,  and  almost  the  only  reward 


54  NOTES. 

he  can  expect— the  gratifying  reflection  that  he  too  has  been  a  benefactor 
to  his  race. 


(A)  Those  of  my  readers;  who  prefer,  direct  experiment  to  reasoning, 
will  probably  be  satisfied  with  the  following  authorities. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  having  placed  the  smooth,  convex  surface  of  a  hem- 
isphere of  glass,  very  accurately  ground,  upon  a  polished  plate  of  the 
same  substance,  observed  the  ring  of  light  which  was  formed  at  the  point 
where  the  one  rested  upon  the  other.  He  then  placed  weight  after  weight 
upon  the  flat  portion  of  the  hemisphere,  and  noted  the  change  wrought 
as  more  pressure  was  applied,  upon  the  light  at  the  point  indicated.  The 
result  of  his  calculations  was,  that  a  force  equal  to  two  thousand  pounds 
to  the  square  inch,  all  that  the  materials  would  bear,  approximated  the 
two  pieces  of  glass  to  the  eighty  thousandth  part  of  an  inch. 


Professor  Robison  of  Edinburgh,  from  whom  I  quote,  from  memory, 
however,  not  having  been  able  to  find  a  copy  of  his  Lectures  in  the  city, 
repeated  the  experiment  with  the  same  result.  But  Dr.  Brewster  has 
shown  that  when  ordinary  light  will  detect  no  intervening  space  between 
two  surfaces,  the  fact  of  their  being  even  then  occasionally  separated,  may 
be  exhibited  by  polarized  light.  It  is  now,  indeed,  so  universally  admit- 
ted that  neither  bodies  nor  particles  of  bodies  touch  each  other,  that  Na- 
tural Philosophers  and  Chemists,  when  they  wish  to  be  particularly  ex- 
act always  speak  of  apparent  contact.  And  it  is,  I  understand,  the 
opinion  of  the  best  thinkers  in  physical  science,  that  in  the  most  compact 
bodies  the  spaces  between  the  particlesfexeeed  in  an  immense  ratio  the 
particles  themselves.  The  Metaphysicians,  however,  avoiding  excess  in 
refinement,  and  what  might  be  suspected  as  paradox  in  assertion,  are  con- 
tent in  their  reasonings  with  the  gross,  demonstrated,  ar,d  admitted  fact, 
that  there  can  be  no  contact  as  regards  bodies — particles  they  leave  to  the 
ingenuity  of  the  mechanical  and  chemical  philosophers.  ■ 


(i)  We  are  so  accustomed  to  suppose  there  is  a  necessary  connection 
between  our  perceiving  bodies  and  their  existence,  that  it  sounds  very 
oddly  when  we  are  first  told  we  may  see,  hear,  nay  feel,  as  we  imagine, 
when  in  truth  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen,  heard,  or  felt.  The  mystery  is 
at  once  cleared  up  by  what  is  stated  in  the  text,  in  relation  to  the  irregular 
action  of  the  nervous  system ;  and  to  these  must  be  added  the  disordered 
movements  of  the  mind  itself.  The  whole  doctrine  of  visions,  spectres, 
ghosts,  &c.  is  thus  at  once  explained,  without  impeaching  the  veracity  of 
those  who  aver  they  have  seen  unearthly  things.  Take  the  following  as 
an  example. 


NOTES.  55 

A  legal  gentleman  of  eminence  in  London  was  ill  with  a  pleuritic  af- 
fection. When  convalescent  he  saw  one  evening  in  his  easy-chair,  the 
figure  of  a  female  to  whom  he  had  been  fondly  attached,  and  who  had 
been  dead  for  some  years.  Her  countenance  was  directed  towards  him 
and  smiling.  The  patient  being  convinced  it  was  an  illusion,  tried  vari- 
ous experiments,  and  after  a  time  it  disappeared.  As  it  happened,  he 
suffered  a  relapse,  and  the  figure  again  returned,  but  now  looked  frown- 
ingly. 

Had  the  mind  of  this  individual  been  feeble,  his  temperament  enthusi- 
astic, or  his  character  one  of  timidity,  the  effect  of  such  a  vision  may  be 
well  imagined. 

Brutus,  as  the  classical  reader  will  recollect,  heard,  as  well  as  saw, 
the  spectre  which  appeared  to  him.  And  there  is  one  case  on  record 
where  the  nerves  of  touch  were  also  imposed  upon,  the  person  feeling, 
hearing,  and  seeing  an  imaginary  blue  dog.  An  occurrence  like  this, 
however,  is  rare,  but  the  instances  of  optical  deception  are  innumerable. 

(j)  I  would  not  by  any  means  have  it  supposed  that  I  consider  this  most 
ingenious  writer  and  amiable  man,  as  an  Atheist  in  fact.  In  what  manner 
his  sceptical  doctrines  may  have  struck  others,  I  do  not  know,  but  the  most 
prominent  of  them  have  always  appeared  to  me  like  logical  jugglery — the 
author  neither  thoroughly  convinced  himself,  nor  expecting  to  convince 
others.  Their  effect  accordingly  upon  my  mind  has  uniformly  been  to  pro- 
duce a  sort  of  ludicrous  wonderment,  as  remote  as  possible  from  conviction. 
From  this  circumstance,  and  from  the  dress  and  style  in  which  Mr.  H. 
has  clothed  his  thoughts,  confining  their  perusal  to  persons  somewhat 
curious  in  their  tastes,  and  of  cultivated  understandings,  his  writings 
have,  I  am  persuaded,  done  far  less  mischief  than  is  generally  supposed. 
How  ill  they  are  calculated  to  please  even  a  strong,  but  uncultivated  in- 
tellect, the  following  anecdote  will  prove. 

The  celebrated  Patrick  Henry  having  enjoyed  none  of  the  advantages 
of  ear]y  education,  and  in  after  life  wishing  to  improve  himself,  applied 
to  Mr.  Jefferson  for  the  loan  of  some  books.  Mr.  J.  put  into  his  hands 
Hume's  Essays.  After  a  few  days  Mr.  Henry  returned  the  work,  beg- 
ging it  might  be  exchanged  for  another,  "  as  he  could  not  get  on  with  it 
at  all." 

Gibbon,  in  my  opinion,  has  done,  and  will  do  more  injury  to  the  cause 
of  Christianity  than  the  entire  host  of  literary  men  combined. 

With  regard  to  that  portion  of  Mr.  Hume's  doctrine  which  is  our  im- 
mediate concern,  the  fatal,  though  amusing  inconsistency,  was  charged 
upon  him  of  framing  arguments,  and  writing  books  for  the  edification 


56  NOTES. 

and  conversion  of  readers,  when  his  reasoning,  if  sound,  demonstrated 
there  could  be  no  readers  for  the  latter  to  instruct,  or  the  former  to  con- 
vert. 

I,  however,  have  always  thought  it  most  remarkable,  that  so  very  acute 
a  dialectician  as  Mr.  Hume,  should  have  participated  in  the  error  of  the 
Materialists,  formerly  pointed  out,  and  have  supposed  it  possible  to  dis- 
prove the  existence  of  the  mind  by  one  of  its  own  functions. 

Had  Des  Cartes  varied  his  celebrated  dictum  he  might,  it  is  probable, 
have  saved  many  from  error.  Instead  of  saying,  "  I  think,  therefore,  I 
am,"  a  more  precise,  and  consequently  a  better  expression  would  have 
been,  "  my  mind  thinks,  therefore,  my  mind  is." 

{k)  Should  the  arguments  stated  in  the  text  be  admitted,  they  overthrow 
two  speculations,  which  have  been  put  forth  in  the  interesting  science  of 
Geology.  The  first  is  quoted  by  Mr.  Dugald  Sewart,  who  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  aware  of  its  fallacy,  from,  I  suspect,  Dr.  Hutton.  The 
idea  suggested  is,  that  a  succession  of  changes,  from  chemical  action  of 
course,  is  to  take  place  upon  this  earth  "  through  the  endless  flux  of  time." 
But  according  to  the  doctrine  for  which  I  contend,  there  is  a  limit  to  the 
number  of  these  changes  ;  and  the  occurrence  of  one  consequently  dimi- 
nishes, to  that  extent,  the  possible  amount.  They  must,  therefore,  sooner 
or  later  come  to  an  end. 

The  second  hypothesis,  which  is  incompatible  with  my  reasoning,  has 
been  brought  forward  by  Mr.  Lyell.  That  accomplished  and  indefatiga- 
ble Geologist,  supposes  that  the  causes,  of  necessity  chemical,  now  modi- 
fying the  surface  of  our  globe,  continue  to  act  with  all  the  intensity  of 
former  days.  But  this  it  appears  to  me  cannot  be  so.  Because  in  addi- 
tion to  what  I  have  stated  in  the  text,  stronger  affinities  will,  ceteris  paribus 
take  precedence  of  the  weaker  in  point  of  time.  Consequently  the  most  violent 
combinations  will  occur  first,  and  then  the  less  violent  in  the  order  of  their 
strength,  until  all  visible  action  ceases.  Now  the  only  method  of  eluding 
this  argument  is  to  show  that  in  the  progress  of  time,  circumstances  arise 
which  compensate  the  operation  of  the  foregoing  principle,  and  maintain 
uniformity  in  the  intensity  of  chemical  action.  And  this  I  conceive  to  be 
not  only  impossible,  but  the  reverse  of  the  fact.  For  every  new  union, 
so  far  from  predisposing,  indisposes  a  particle  to  enter  into  new  asso- 
ciations. Thus,  sodium  is  more  ready  to  combine  than  soda ;  soda  than 
the  carbonate,  of  that  substance ;  the  carbonate  than  the  sulphate,  &c. 
until  the  metaloid  will  enter  into  no  further  combination  at  all.  A  priori 
reasoning  therefore,  seems  to  me  to  confirm  the  theory  of  Mr.  De  La 
Beche,  and,  I  believe,  the  majority  of  Geologists,  that  the  powers  now  af- 
fecting Geological  changes  are  less  energetic  than  they  formerly  were. 


NOTES.  57 

If  my  observation  may  be  considered  as  dust  in  the  balance  between  such 
authorities,  it  coincides  with  the  latter,  and  corroborates  my  argument. 

The  result  of  the  whole  is,  that  sooner  or  later  a  state  of  repose  must 
occur,  never  to  be  disturbed  through  the  endless  lapse  of  time,  without  the 
intervention  of  that  Power  whose  fiat  first  called  matter  into  existence, 
and  then  subjected  it,  for  the  time  being,  which  for  our  system  cannot,  I 
should  infer,  be  more  than  a  few  millions  of  years,  to  such  rules  as  to  His 
good  pleasure  seemed  fit. 

(I)  But  if  the  objections  to  the  mode  of  reasoning,  which  the  Atheists 
will  be  compelled  hereafter  to  adopt,  were  less  insuperable  than  they  are, 
yet  they  could  not  use  it  without  destroying  themselves.  For  its  employ- 
ment would  immediately  deprive  them  of  the  only  plea  possessing  a  shad- 
ow of  plausibility,  which  they  have  hitherto  been  able  to  urge  against 
the  Theists — their  admission  of  a  Power  uncreated,  boundless,  and  eter- 
nal, while  for  themselves  they  say,  they  will  acknowledge  nothing  which 
reason  does  not  sanction,  and  reason  cannot  sanction  what  reason  cannot 
fathom.  But  these  deluded  votaries  of  reason  will  be  henceforth  driven 
from  their  negatives,  and  will  have  to  contend  for  something  which  had 
no  beginning,  will  have  no  end,  incessant  in  its  action,  and  possessed,  in 
one  respect  at  least,  of  infinite  power.  Can  they  now  taunt  the  Theists 
with  going  beyond  their  reason  1 

I  do  not  profess  to  be  deeply  read  in  Atheistical  writers,  and  the  fore- 
going assertion  as  to  their  solitary  plea,  is  founded  upon  the  following 
circumstance. 

When  a  student  of  medicine  in  Paris.  I  became  acquainted  with  a  gen- 
tleman who  has  employed  more  time,  money,  and  personal  exertion,  with 
a  view  to  the  benefit  of  his  fellow  mortals,  than  any  individual  whom  I 
have  personally  known.  He  possessed  the  unfortunate  opinions  which  I 
am  controverting,  and  we  had  frequent  discussions  on  the  subject.  His 
argument  was  in  substance  what  I  have  stated,  and  was  thus  expressed  : 
That  Christians  are  to  be  sure  blockheads  enough  for  professing  to  walk 
by  faith,  but  that  of  all  fools  in  the  world  the  Deists  are  the  greatest.  For 
that  they  who  acknowledge  reason  for  their  guide,  hold  opinions  which 
confessedly  reason  cannot,  strictly  speaking,  comprehend. 

I  maintained  my  cause  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  but  being  young,  and 
less  conversant  with  dialectics  then,  than  I  have  since  been,  I  could  not  do 
it  justice.  Otherwise  I  could  have  shown  that  reason  can  demonstrate  a 
fact,  which  reason  cannot  conceive.  The  argument  is  equally  short  and 
conclusive.  Either  there  are  bounds  to  space  or  there  are  not.  But  bound- 
less space  is  clearly  beyond  the  ken  of  our  faculties,  and  bounds  to  space 
are  equally  so,  since  in  the  latter  case  the  question  would  instantly  arise, 
What  is  beyond  the  supposed  bounds  % 


58  NOTES. 

In  sober  truth,  however,  so  feeble  in  capacity  is  the  human  mind,  so 
circumscribed  are  its  operations,  that  a  genuine  philosopher  has  to  admit 
his  ignorance  a  million  of  times,  for  once,  that  he  can  boast  of  his  know- 
ledge. 

{m)  Efficient  and  final  causes  are  not,  infact,  more  broadly  distinguished 
in  physical,  than  they  are  in  moral  inquiries.  Yet  it  is  by  confounding 
those  causes  that  sceptics,  from  Mr.  Hume  downwards,  and  misanthropes 
of  every  age,  who  have  denied  the  reality  of  human  virtue,  have  endea- 
voured to  sustain  their  lamentable  error.  Take  benevolence  as  an  ex- 
ample, and  the  question  can  be  settled  without  the  aid  of  logic  or  philo- 
sophy, by  every  one  who  will  consult  his  own  bosom,  and  answer  the  fol- 
lowing questions.  Breathes  there  a  sane,  human  being,  who,  on  seeing  a 
child  fall  into  the  water,  and  there  struggle  for  its  life,  would  not  feel  an 
emotion  to  relieve  that  child  for  its  own  sake  %  If  so,  what  is  the  nature 
of  that  emotion  1 

My  queries,  it  is  to  be  observed,  are  propounded  upon  the  supposition, 
that  the  spectator  performs  no  act,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  blending  of  sub- 
sequent considerations  arising  from  having  done  our  duty,  with,  an- 
tecedent, and  moving  states  of  the  mind. 


(n)  Every  inquirer  into  the  wonders  of  creation,  has,  I  presume,  his 
peculiar  taste,  but  to  me  the  application  of  the  doctrine  of  final  causes  to 
moral  phenomena,  has  always  been  far  more  agreeable  than  to  physical 
arrangements.  For  our  faculties  are  so  humble  that  there  must  be  about 
the  latter  a  coarseness,  and  a  clumsiness,  if  words  of  such  apparent  irre- 
verence may  be  used,  to  bring  them  down  to  the  level  of  our  capacities. 
From  these  derogatory  associations  the  first  are  exempt.  Thus  the  me- 
chanism by  which  the  bones  are  connected,  and  the  blood  propelled,  is 
sufficiently  obvious,  while  the  brain,  from  its  infinitely  more  delicate  and 
curious  structure,  is  to  our  dull  perceptions  very  nearly  a  terra  incognita. 

But  the  gratification  is  great,  and  frequently  unmingled,  when  in  con- 
templating human  conduct,  we  observe  how  each  toiling  pismire,  heed- 
less of  others,  and  bent  upon  the  attainment  of  his  own  little  ends,  but 
verifies  the  words  of  the  poet — 

"  Each  seeks  a  separate  goal, 

But  Heaven's  is  one,  and  that  the  whole." 

Whoever  wishes  to  see  this  on  a  large  scale  may  consult  the  Wealth  of 
Nations,  and  they  will  be  there  taught  the  manner  in  which  the  vanity 
and  selfishness  of  the  nobility,  broke  the  chains  of  the  feudal  system,  and 
thus  conferred  upon  the  world  the  liberty  which  we  now  enjoy,  and  its 


NOTES.  59 

consequences,  knowledge,  wealth,  virtue,  and  happiness.  These  have 
increased,  are  increasing,  and,  in  my  hope  and  belief,  will  continue  to  in- 
crease so  long  as  it  shall  please  the  beneficence  of  the  Supreme  Ruler  to 
continue  the  present  order  of  his  creation. 


(o)  Those  who  think  they  can  reconcile  physical  imperfection  and 
moral  evil,  however  slight  or  transitory,  with  the  attributes  of  the  Deity, 
must  extricate  themselves  as  they  can  from  the  following  argument.  It 
was,  I  believe,  framed  before  the  days  of  Epictetus,  and  if  I  mistake  not, 
may  be  found  in  his  works. 

Either  God  has  the  power  to  prevent  evil,  and  not  the  will,  or  he  has 
the  will  and  not  the  power,  or  neither,  or  both.  But  the  first  supposition 
impeaches  his  benevolence,  the  second  his  omnipotence,  and  the  third,  the 
one  and  the  other.  He  is,  however,  both  omnipotent  and  benevolent; 
there  is,  consequently,  say  the  stoics,  no  such  thing  as  evil,  and  what  is 
thus  designated  are  mere  accidents,  beneath  the  attention  of  a  wise  man. 
Happy  is  he  whose  experience  confirms  this  logic  ! 

Archbishop  King  quotes  the  foregoing  reasoning,  and  vainly  inclines 
to  the  intractability  of  matter,  as  some  of  the  older  philosophers  termed  it, 
as  a  mode  of  escape.  Paley,  too,  has  examined  the  question,  but  not  with 
his  usual  ability,  nor  what  is  much  more  remarkable,  with  his  usual  can- 
dour.    The  following  is  his  syllogism  : — 

"  Either  God  wished  the  happiness  of  men, 

or  He  wished  their  misery, 

or  He  was  indifferent  and  unconcerned  about  both." 

He  then  goes  on  to  say,  that  God  has  not  wished  our  misery,  nor  is  he 
indifferent,  and  therefore  he  wishes  us  to  be  happy. 

Now  here  it  is  manifest  that  the  fourth  and  true  predicate  has  been 
omitted.  For  our  Creator  has  wished  us  to  experience  some  enjoyment 
on  the  one  hand,  and  to  suffer  some  misery  on  the  other.  The  former,  I 
think,  predominates,  but  that  there  is  no  small  amount  of  the  latter,  the 
bosoms  of  us  all  can  painfully  testify. 

Evil,  says  Paley,  no  doubt  exists,  but  it  is  never  the  object  of  "  contri- 
vance." Whence  comes  it  then  1  Through  accident,  or,  as  he  seems 
unwillingly  to  admit,  from  inability  ?  But  in  philosophy  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  accident,  nor,  as  we  have  seen,  can  inability  be  predicated  of  an 
Omnipotent  Being.  But,  moreover,  Paley  is  mistaken  in  his  fact.  Evil 
is  sometimes  designed.     The  talons  and  beak  of  the  hawk,  however  ne- 


60  NOTES. 

cessary  to  himself,  are  contrived  to  inflict  pain  upon  the  dove.  And  even 
in  us,  no  one  can  doubt  that  our  teeth  were  as  much  intended  to  ache  upon 
occasion,  as  to  chew  in  ordinary.  For  they  are  furnished  with  nerves, 
which  answer  no  other  purpose  that  I  know  of,  except  to  give  pain,  since 
these  may  be  destroyed  without  impeding  mastication.  At  any  rate,  every 
one  must  see  that  our  teeth  might  have  been  rendered  as  insensible  as  our 
nails. 

If,  then,  it  be  asked,  how  I  extricate  myself  from  the  difficulty,  I  reply, 
I  do  not  extricate  myself  at  all,  since  there  is  sufficient  evidence  to  com- 
pel a  belief  in  the  Omnipotence  and  Benevolence  of  the  Creator  on  the  one 
hand,  while  on  the  other,  painful  experience  and  observation  daily  prove 
the  existence  of  evil.  The  facts  I  connot  reconcile,  and  where  I  "  cant 
unravel,"  I  "  learn  to  trust." 

By  the  way,  it  is  a  singular  circumstance  Geology  should  prove,  that 
animals  preyed  upon  each  other  as  they  do  now,  before  the  creation  of 
man. 

1  have  heard  it  suggested  in  argument,  that  the  imperfection  of  man  is 
no  impeachment  of  the  Omnipotence  of  the  Creator,  because  it  is  not  de- 
rogatory to  suppose  him  incapable  of  creating  a  perfect  being— that  is, 
one  equal  to  himself. 

The  reply  to  this  is,  I  fear,  equally  brief  and  decisive.  If  there  be  a 
doubt  whether  the  Deity  could  have  created  us  perfect,  there  is  no  man- 
ner of  question,  if  he  had  thought  fit  so  to  do,  he  could  have  formed  us 
far  more  perfect  than  we  are. 

O)  The  necessary  physical  cause  of  death  appears  to  depend  upon  the 
following  circumstances.  First,  all  living  substances,  whether  animal 
or  vegetable,  are  composed  of  solids  and  fluids.  Secondly,  the  latter  must 
circulate  through  former,  or  existence  ceases.  Thirdly,  the  resistance 
which  the  parts  that  are  stationary  oppose  to  those  which  are  in  motion, 
augments  from  the  instant,  *a  separate  vitality  is  established.  Fourthly, 
the  motor  power  also  increases  for  a  certain  period,  in  a  higher  ratio  than 
the  opposition  which  it  has  to  overcome.  But  lastly,  this  power  acquires 
its  maximum,  and  then  declines,  so  that  sooner  or  later  a  counterpoise 
must  take  place,  and  with  it  death.  This  sequence  of  changes  requires, 
of  course,  very  different  portions  of  time  in  the  several  classes  of  animals, 
and  the  various  tribes  of  vegetables.  Thus  the  whale  is  supposed  to  live 
about  a  thousand  years,  while  some  ephemeral  insects  do  not  exceed  a  few 
hours.  Among  vegetables  the  disparity  is  still  greater.  The  Adansonia 
Digitata,  or  Boabab,  will  endure  for  upwards  of  four  thousand  years.. 


NOTES.  61 

while  some  of  the  more  fugitive  fungi  "  spring  in  anight,  and  wither  in 
a  day." 

(q)  This  impression,  of  course,  the  most  sublime  that  can  enter  into  the 
imagination  of  man,  although  solitary  in  degree,  is  not  insulated  in  kind. 
We  have  other  instincts  equally  original,  and  more  direct  in  their  bear- 
ing on  civilized  society,  in  so  much,  indeed,  that  political  institutions  can- 
not exist  where  they  are  disregarded.     Of  these,  it  is  sufficient  for  my 
purpose,  to  mention  our  sense  of  justice  and  the  feeling  of  love.     The 
former  teaches  us  to  respect  what  belongs  to  others ;  the  latter,  distinct 
from  the  desire  for  offspring,  and  so  opposed  to  mere  animal  passion,  with 
which  gross  writers  confound  it,  that  the  contrast  forms  the  basis  of  nearly 
the  entire  mass  of  novels,  predisposes  the  virtuous  minded  of  either  sex,  to 
form  unions  which  shall  terminate  only  with  life.     The  laws,  therefore, 
which  enforce  the  rights  of  property,  and  which  render  the  matrimonial 
compact  indissoluble  at  the  will  of  the  parties,  are  not  as  some  superficial 
thinkers  have  supposed,  the  arbitrary  enactments  of  ignorant  and  inter- 
ested legislators.    That  these  enactments  should  be  productive  of  occa- 
sional evil,  amounts  to  no  more  than  this— man  is  their  subject.     But  the 
sources  of  these  ordinances  lie  deep  in  the  recesses  of  the  human  heart, 
where,  shrouded  from  the  gaze  of  the  ignorant,  and  the  consciousness  of 
the  cold  and  the  sensual,  play  the  secret  springs  of  human  conduct,  and 
human  institutions.     To  the  streams  which  flow  from  these  fountains, 
when  they  are  themselves  uncontaminated,  for  the  purity  and  warmth  of 
the  moral  affections  are  of  far  more  importance  in  such  inquiries,  than 
acuteness  of  intellect,  the  lawgiver  merely,  perhaps  unwittingly,  gives 
force.    Perceiving-  that  certain  observances  are  indispensable  to  the  ex- 
istence of  those  forms  of  polity,  which  it  is  his  object  to  perpetuate,  he 
frames  his  statutes  accordingly.    But  in  so  doing,  he  in  effect  says,  "  I  but 
carry  out  the  intentions  of  your  Creator.  If  you,  for  whom  I  legislate,  will 
obey  the  guides  which  he  has  implanted  in  your  bosoms  to  keep  you  in  the 
paths  of  rectitude,  my  regulations  will  be  null,  because  did  they  not  exist, 
you  would  nevertheless  comply  with  what  I  now  enjoin.     If,  however, 
your  monitor  be  silent  or  your  inclinations  vicious,  if  in  defiance  of  your 
Maker's  laws,  you  will  steal,  rob,  or  commit  adultery,  then  shall  you  meet 
at  my  hands  with  that  punishment  which  you  have  merited." 

In  all  this,  of  course,  there  is  nothing  new,  but  old  truths  must  be  some- 
times re-stated ;  and,  moreover,  I  could  add  to  Mr.  Hume's  admirable  re- 
marks on  the  philosophy  of  matrimony,  physiological  arguments,  both 
new,  and  of  great  weight,  but  this  is  not  the  place. 


This  note  should  have  been  placed  at  the  foot  of  page  28.     It  refers  to  the 
word  "  habitat,"  in  the  eighth  line  of  that  page. 
The  special  seat  of  the  mind,  if  there  be  one,  has  never  been  ascertain- 
ed.   The  upper  portion  of  the  brain  {cerebrum,)  and,  perhaps,  its  anterior 


62 


NOTES. 


lobes,  may  be  more  particularly  devoted  to  the  operations  of  the  intellect. 
But  accident  and  experiment  have  established  the  fact,  that  two  small 
bodies  {corpora  olivaria,)  more  regularly  and  beautifully  oval,  though  in 
other  respects  resembling  plump  grains  of  wheat,  form  the  domicil  of  the 
vital  principle.  These  little  eminences,  of  such  importance  in  the  animal 
economy,  and  as  white  as  snow,  are  situated  anteriorly  and  just  within 
the  head,  where  it  is  united  to  the  neck. 


THE  END. 


POSTSCRIPT 


The  favourable  prospects  announced  for  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  this  city,  at  the  delivery  of  the 
foregoing  Lecture,  are  in  progress  of  fulfilment.  Already 
do  its  numbers  exceed  those  of  last  year,  and  they  are  con- 
stantly augmenting.  When,  then,  we  consider  the  en- 
larged and  improved  means  of  instruction  which  this  In- 
stitution now  affords,  the  commodiousness  of  the  building, 
perhaps  unequalled,  certainly  unsurpassed  in  the  Union, 
and  the  unbounded  facilities  of  the  Anatomical  Department, 
we  may  confidently  anticipate  for  it  a  long  and  successful 
course  of  prosperity  and  usefulness. 

December  1st,  1837. 


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